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THE 



Spanish Main ; 



OR, 



Thirty Days on the Caribbean. 



By EDWARD T. HALL. 



Illustrations from the Author's Photographs, Engraved by 
Miss Julia M. Hall. 



BUFFALO: 
THE COURIER COMPANY, PRINTERS, 

iSSS. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of.'Pongress 




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http://www.archive.org/details/spanishmainOOhall 



THE SPANISH MAIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

A Voyage to the Spanish Main. 

I WAS born in the City of New York, and spent nearly 
the whole of the early part of my life in that great 
metropolis. 

In my school-boy days it was my infinite delight to roanr 
and linger along the docks and watch the stately ships as 
they came and went, or as they lay at their piers discharging 
or taking in cargo. As I gazed at the tapering masts and 
spars and saw the sailors running up and down the shrouds 
and ratlins like squirrels, or clinging to the cross-yards like 
spiders on a wall, I wished that I could be a sailor. But as 
I grew older, and by education came to know the hardships 
and privations of a sailor's life as well as its perils, and more 
especially as I reflected upon his necessitated seclusion from 
the society of those he dearly loves, and which tends so much 
toward making up the sum of human happiness, I was easily 
persuaded to relinquish the desire to adopt a seafaring life. 

But my love for the ocean and my longings to visit foreign 
shores grew no less as the years sped on. I fed my passion 
on the entrancing sea novels of Cooper and Maryatt. Like 
as Claude Melnotte said to his Pauline, " We'll read no books 
that are not tales of love, that we may smile to think how 
poorly eloquence of words translates the poetry of hearts 
like ours," so did I seek to read only such books as were tales 



6 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

of the sea, and dream of that happy time — that I felt sure 
would come to me — when I could gratify the yearnings of my 
heart. 

But, as if to mock at my youthful hopes, Dame Fortune 
decreed that I should live for many years an inland life, 
deprived even of a glimpse of the ocean, or a sight of those 
gallant ships which bring from afar for us the products of 
other lands, and scatter the wealth of all climes broadcast 
among the sons of men. 

Thus it was that middle-life had come and gone before I 
was able in any degree to indulge the passion which had so 
early animated my breast, and which has never ceased to burn 
brightly on the altar of my fondest hopes. 

But there finally came a time when I could lay aside tempo- 
rarily every year the cares of business, and enjoy with keenest 
zest the ever-changing experience of ocean voyages and visits 
to strange countries. 

It is my purpose at the present time to give some account 
of a voyage to the Spanish Main, which I had the pleasure of 
making in the early spring months of 1887. 

At one o'clock on Wednesday, March 2d, I was a passenger 
on the iron steamship " Philadelphia," of the Red "D" Line, 
which sailed from Pier 36, East River, in the port of New 
York. The day was an exceptionally fine one for this season 
of the year. The sun shone brightly and the air was as balmy 
as in the leafy month of June. A tug-boat helped us to 
swing around toward the bay against a strong flood tide, and 
in a few minutes we were steaming majestically along under 
the great bridge that spans the East River and unites the City 
of New York to her sister City of Brooklyn. Soon we were 
rapidly passing the now famous statue of " Liberty Enlight- 
ening the World," sometimes familiarly called " Mademoiselle 
Bartholdi." When we reached Sandy Hook our good-looking 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. J 

young pilot, after courteously shaking hands with the captain 
and first officer, swung himself lightly over the rail, and by a 
rope-ladder descended to a small row-boat which had put off 
from a pilot-boat, on a signal from our mast-head, to take him 
from our steamer. 

To a landsman the transit from a great ocean steamer to a 
little row-boat, which bobs up and down on the waves like an 
egg-shell, would be an awkward feat to accomplish, and might 
easily result in a broken limb or a sea-water bath, but to our 
pilot, with his experience and coolness and strength of arm, it 
appears to. be as easy as "rolling off from a log." He descends 
the rope-ladder to within a few feet of the heaving waters, but 
is in no hurry to let go. He bides his time until a wave brings 
the little boat up to the proper position for his purpose, when 
he drops lightly down and in a twinkling is in the stern-sheets, 
with his hand on the tiller. His cheery voice shouts, " Give 
way, my lads ! " and the oarsmen row him quickly away from 
the great steamer. 

Now the captain takes charge, and our course is laid south, 
one and a quarter points east, which course we will continue 
to hold for several days and nights till we approach the islands 
of St. Domingo and Porto Rico, between which we are to sail, 
taking care to avoid two smaller islands lying between these 
two greater ones just named, and which are called, respec- 
tively, "Mona Island " and " Monita Island ; " that is to say, 
" Monkey Island " and " Little Monkey Island." 

This course between these islands is designated on the 
charts as the " Mona Passage," and here our course will be 
changed to a more southerly one, and we will enter the 
Caribbean Sea. Thence we will shape our course a little west 
of south for the tropical island of Curacao. This island is one 
of that great group that come under the general name of the 
West Indies, but it is more particularly known as one of the 



8 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

Caribbee Islands. It also belongs to that group known as the 
"Leeward" Islands, in contradistinction to a group farther 
eastward, known as the " Windward " Islands. So it is proper 
to speak of Curacao as one of the West India Islands, or as 
one of the Carib or Caribbee Islands, or as one of the Leeward 
Islands, either expression being correct. 

And now, while we are bowling along at the rate of twelve 
or thirteen knots an hour, I will bring this first chapter to a 
close, and in my state-room bed shut my eyes and woo the 
drowsy god of sleep, while listening to the waves swashing 
against our steamer as she proudly plows her way through 
them. The majesty of the ocean ceases not when the eye is 
closed upon its heaving bosom. The rushing sound of its 
many waters, when the head is on the pillow, makes its im- 
press on the reflective mind as deeply as to gaze on its restless 
billows. 

Here is a beautiful ode to the Sea, written by a German 
poet : 

To The Sea. 

Thou boundless, shining, glorious Sea, 
With ecstasy I gaze on thee ; 
Joy, joy to him whose early beam 
Kisses thy lip, bright Ocean-stream ! 

Thanks for the thousand hours, old Sea, 
Of sweet communion held with thee : 
Oft as I gazed, thy billowy roll 
Woke the deep feelings of my soul. 

Drunk with the joy, thou deep-toned Sea, 
My spirit swells to heaven with thee ; 
Or, sinking with thee, seeks the gloom 
Of nature's deep, mysterious tomb. 

At evening, when the sun grows red, 
Descending to his watery bed, 
The music of the murmuring deep 
Soothes e'en the weary earth to sleep. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 

Then listens thee the evening star, 
So sweetly glancing from afar ; 
And Luna hears thee when she breaks 
Her light in million-colored flakes. 

Oft when the noonday heat is o'er, 
I seek with joy the breezy shore, 
Sink on thy boundless, billowy breast, 
And cheer me with refreshing rest. 

The poet, child of heavenly birth, 
Is suckled by the mother earth ; 
But thy blue bosom, holy Sea, 
Cradles his infant fantasy. 

The old blind minstrel on the shore 
Stood listening thy eternal roar, 
And golden ages, long gone by, 
Swept bright before his spirit's eye. 

On wing of swan the holy flame 
Of melodies celestial came, 
And Iliad and Odyssey 
Rose to the music of the Sea. 

— Frederick Leopold, Count of Stolberg. 



IO THE SPANISH MAIN. 



CHAPTER II. 

At Sea — Our Steamer and Her Officers. 

AS I commence this chapter I do not forget that a great 
many people who, in these days of comfortable traveling 
facilities, and of " Cook's Tours" and " Raymond's Excur- 
sions" to all parts of the world, are familiar with the aver- 
age ocean steamer and its characteristics. To these, my 
account of the steamer " Philadelphia," and her officers, will 
doubtless possess but little interest. But I also reflect that 
there is a far greater proportion who are unfamiliar with the 
details of the construction of these great steamships that trans- 
port with comfort and safety so many hundreds of thousands 
of the members of the human family to all parts of the world, 
over that great, free and universal highway, the ocean. 

To this class of my readers I will give a few items of the 
dimensions and construction of the steamer " Philadelphia," 
of the Red " D " Line, plying between the City of New 
York and Puerto Cabello and La Guayra in Venezuela, also 
stopping at the island of Curacao. I shall also venture to say 
something of her officers. 

The " Philadelphia " was built by William Cramp & Sons, of 
Philadelphia. Her length over all is 283 feet 6 inches ; length 
on water line, 270 feet 9 inches; beam, 35 feet; depth of hold 
to main deck, 20 feet 6 inches ; depth of hold to upper deck, 
28 feet 3 inches; tonnage, 2,100 gross. She is constructed of 
iron. Forward are the anchors and chains, anchor crane 
with attachments and capstan, which is worked from steam 
windlass below. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. I I 

There are three hatches for cargo, each provided with iron 
hatch cover, gummed and secured with strong iron dogs, 
making them absolutely water-tight. The pilot-house on the 
upper deck is provided with steam steering-gear of the most 
approved style, which can be disconnected should it be desired, 
and the vessel then steered by hand. In addition, she is also 
provided with a wheel aft. 

The captain's cabin, aft of the pilot-house, is finished in hard 
wood, and possesses every convenience for comfort. First and 
second officers' rooms adjoin. Following these are two state- 
rooms on each side, abaft of which is a stairway leading to the 
main deck. Aft of the after-hatch is a deck-house, containing 
the social hall, with main entrance to saloon, then six state- 
rooms, three on each side, and after these a large and comfort- 
able smoking-room. She is provided with six life-boats, swung 
on iron frames overhead, so as to allow an unobstructed prom- 
enade on the upper deck, and two life-rafts placed on the roof 
of the deck-house. Seats are fitted along the rail on each side 
from the pilot-house aft. 

The saloon on the main deck extends the entire width of 
the vessel, thus insuring good light and ventilation. The 
dining tables, seven in number, are arranged three on each 
side, and one in the center, those on the side being placed 
athwartship, thus enabling each passenger to occupy or vacate 
his seat without disturbing others. Handsome sideboards are 
placed on each side. Adjoining the dining-saloon there are 
nineteen state-rooms, which, with the tier on the upper deck, 
accommodate sixty-four first-class passengers. In the rear are 
ladies' and gentlemen's toilet-rooms and two bath-rooms. The 
social hall, saloon and state-rooms are hard-wood finish, pannel- 
ling of mahogany, oak and ash, the upholstery being of plush. 

The pantry and kitchen are fitted with steam tables and all 
the appliances of a first-class hotel. The officers' quarters, for 



12 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

the engineers, stewards and purser, are on the main deck, with 
the mail-room adjoining the latter. The officers' mess-room is 
finished in hard wood. Ample accommodations are provided 
for second-class passengers and crew, also for ice-houses and 
store-rooms. The hold is divided by five water-tight bulk- 
heads. Each compartment is ventilated by air shafts leading 
to the interior of the smoke-stack, by means of which a power- 
ful draught is created, thereby preventing condensation from, 
warm air in coming from the tropics. 

The machinery consists of a vertical compound surface con- 
densing engine, with cylinders 32 and 61 inches diameter 
respectively, stroke 3 feet. The engine is fitted with all mod- 
ern improvements, such as steam reversing gear, governor,, 
feed water heater, filter, etc. Two duplex donkey pumps are 
conveniently located, with connections to bilge, sea condenser,, 
boilers, tanks and all parts of the vessel for fire-hose. The 
boilers, two in number, are made of extra quality tested steel,. 
14 feet in diameter, 12K feet long; each has three furnaces.. 
The working pressure of steam is ninety pounds, though they 
were tested to one hundred and eighty pounds. In construc- 
tion, outfit and finish this ship is a first-class specimen of 
American marine architecture,, and rates 100 Ai XX for 
twenty years in British Lloyd's. 

Her officers are as follows : 

Commander, Capt. Samuel Hess. 

First Officer William A. Wilkinson. 

Second Officer, John Skelling. 

Chief Engineer, George W. Campbell. 

Purser, . WILLIAM Howe. 

Steward, John Hardy. 

Besides these there are two assistant engineers, three oilers,, 
seven firemen, three coal passers, two quartermasters, one 
boatswain, one carpenter, six able seamen, five colored deck- 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. ] 3 

hands, six colored table-waiters, three cooks, one pantry-man, 
one messman, one porter, and last, though not least, one 
stewardess, " fair, fat and forty," who is the ministering angel 
to the lady passengers, either when they are really seasick, 
or merely "afraid they are going to be." The stereotyped 
smile which perpetually illumines her " seven-by-nine " coun- 
tenance, carries assurance and sweet hope to all tremulous 
souls who dread the tribute that old Neptune sometimes 
demands from over-loaded stomachs. I cannot think of 
omitting, at this opportune place, that old familiar tribute 

to woman : 

"Oh, woman, in our hours of ease, 
Uncertain, coy and hard to please, 
When pain and anguish wring the brow ; 
A ministering angel thou ! " 

Capt. Samuel Hess is a most excellent type of a true 
American sailor. Born in Philadelphia and coming from good 
old Quaker stock, he had the benefit of an early religious 
training and a good education. But he was bound to be a 
sailor, and actually went to sea as a cabin-boy before he was 
twelve years old ! He has followed the sea ever since — a 
period of forty years. He rapidly rose in the profession and 
has been the captain of many vessels and sailed to nearly 
every part of the globe. Bluff and hearty in manner, rigid in 
discipline, though kind-hearted and just, he is always a gentle- 
man and endears himself to all classes, whether they are 
directly under his authority or are his passengers. Being the 
senior captain in this line, he is the commodore of the fleet, 
and has command of its newest and finest vessel. 

Captain Hess is a strictly temperate man and requires that 
his officers shall, while on duty, be the same. It is such men 
as Captain Hess that we pin our faith to when we embark on 
a voyage which may be fraught with danger, requiring the 
best seamanship, long experience, cool judgment and unclouded 



14 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

brain, undaunted courage, unflagging watchfulness and great 
physical endurance. 

When I doff my clothes, and, donning my robe de nuit, lie 
down to pleasant slumbers in my little bed, I feel that I am 
safe, not only in the general Providential care that is over us all 
during the silent watches of the night, but also in that special 
providence which I feel is guarding me in the person of our 
most excellent and watchful commander. 

I have said that Captain Hess has followed the sea for forty 
years, but this is not strictly correct, for there was an interval 
of eight months during the year 1865 that he followed some- 
thing else more treacherous even than the ocean. How I came 
to know it is as follows : When I was first introduced to him 
he asked me where I was from. I told him from Pennsylvania. 

"What part of Pennsylvania?" 

" From that part called the Oil Regions." 

" From the Oil Regions, eh ! " 

A feeble smile played around the corners of the captain's 
mouth as he made this last remark, and I immediately knew 
that he was one of that innumerable army who, in the early 
days of the history of Petroleum, had " been there," and had 
put much more money in the ground than they had ever 
taken out. Oh, I meet them all over, in Mexico, on the 
Pacific Slope, in Cuba, in Florida, on the coast of Maine, in 
the Lake Superior region, and on the bosom of the broad 
Atlantic. 

The captain's experience was no exception to the general 
rule. He came, he saw, but he didn't conquer! An contraire, 
he dropped a few thousands in a few months and then 
returned complacently to his vocation, "sailing the ocean 
blue," just as if nothing had happened ! 

He laughs over the episode, just as I find all sensible men 
do after a lapse of twenty years, when Time, the great healer, 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. I 5 

has assuaged the grief, and Dame Fortune has, in other and 
more certain channels, compensated for the losses that inex- 
perience and mistaken zeal in their calculation of an "unknown 
quantity" brought upon them. 

Captain Hess' first officer, Mr. Wilkinson, is also a life-long 
sailor. He was born in Pennsylvania, in the town of Bristol, 
and has had a wide and eventful experience on the ocean. 
He cannot be called a handsome man, and yet he is not 
homely enough to stop a clock! What he lacks in beauty he 
more than makes up in pleasing manners, and is a general 
favorite with all the passengers. To him I am indebted for 
much information, which I hope will be interesting to my 
readers. 

In thinking of the invariable politeness of all the officers of 
this ship, I cannot help saying to myself, " Like master, like 
man," for when I went to the office of the owners of this line, 
Messrs. Boulton, Bliss & Dallett, No. 71 Wall street, to pro- 
cure my state-room, I was treated with the utmost courtesy 
and kindness. All inquiries were cordially answered and many 
things suggested that would tend to make the voyage more 
thoroughly enjoyable and satisfactory. 

How different is this from the crusty manners assumed by 
many officials clothed in a little brief authority! How often 
have I been made to feel like a detected pickpocket when 
making a polite inquiry of some of these offensive clerks and 
agents ! Oh, when they come to receive their final reward 
for all the deeds done in the body, may it be their doom to 
be perpetually snubbed by all the dirty little imps of Hades! 

This is our second day out of New York. The skies con- 
tinue clear and cloudless, and the air is so soft and balmy that 
we are sitting about the decks without overcoats and feeling 
thoroughly comfortable. In the evening the moon, " pale 
empress of the night," rides high in the heavens, and the 



l6 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

•sweet glimmer of the stars upon the water's wide expanse, 
make a scene of loveliness, as well as grandeur, and I sit in 
my steamer chair gazing and dreaming long after the other 
passengers have gone to rest. I recall the words of Lorenzo 
and Jessica at Belmont : 

The moon shines bright : In such a night as this, 
When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, 
And they did make no noise ; in such a night, 
Troilus, methinks, mounted the. Trojan walls, 
And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents, 
Where Cressid lay that night. 

In such a night, 
Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew, 
And saw the lion's shadow ere himself, 
And ran dismay'd away. 

In such a night, 
.Stood Dido, with a willow in her hand, 
Upon the wild sea-banks, and waved her love 
To come again to Carthage. 

In such a night, 
Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs, 
That did renew old ^Eson. 

In such a night, 
Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew, 
And with an unthrift love did run from Venice, 
As far as Belmont. 

And in such a night, 
Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well, 
■Stealing her soul with many vows of faith, 
And ne'er a true one. 

And in such a night, 
Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew, 
Slander her love, and he forgave it her. 

— Shakespeare. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 1 J 



CHAPTER III. 

Lost at Sea — And Some of My Fellow-Travelers. 



"^\ 7"ES," said Mr. Wilkinson, one night as I paced th 
J- with him during his watch, "you may well say 



the deck 
that a 

sailor's life is one of hardship and peril. I read in the Good 
Book that when David was beset on all sides by the soldiers of 
King Saul who sought to take his life, he said to Jonathan, 
' Surely, there is but a step between me and death,' and I 
think how true this is of every sailor's life ! A single misstep 
may at any time plunge him into the relentless ocean, or fling 
him from the giddy mast to an almost certain death on the 
deck below. Yes, as you say, our life is often held by a single 
thread, and, as an illustration of this, I must tell you of a 
tragic incident that I witnessed once on shipboard. 

" It was about twelve years ago," continued the chief officer, 
" when I was on the steamship ' Pennsylvania,' of the Amer- 
ican Line, plying between Philadelphia and Liverpool. Old 
Captain Thomas Harris was her commander, a bluff old sea- 
dog, but as big-hearted a man as I ever knew. When he died 
a few years ago that line lost its best captain. But, as I was 
saying, it was on the ' Pennsylvania ' on an outward voyage in 
June, the third day out, in the neighborhood of the ' Banks,' 
we were running along with a fine breeze from the westward, 
with all sails set, and making twelve to thirteen knots an hour. 
It w r as my watch on deck, but I had gone below to work up 
my reckoning, when suddenly the engine gong struck the 
signal to stop the ship. I ran up the companion-way bare- 



1 8 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

headed as the cry of 'Man overboard !' rang in my ears. I 
shouted, ' Clear away the starboard forward boat,' and it took 
but a moment or two to do so, and, as it was being lowered, I 
and the crew of six leaped in. By this time the engine was 
backing, although the steamer was still forging ahead quite 
rapidly. 

" As the boat struck the water we unhooked the falls, and 
Captain Harris, who was on the bridge, shouted to me, ' There 
he is, Wilkinson,' pointing in the direction of where the poor 
fellow was fighting against his fate. As I stood up in the 
stern of the boat with my hand on the tiller, I could see, as 
the boat rose on the huge waves, the poor man away off to the 
leeward, struggling in the waves, and a number of sea-birds 
circling about him. My men, you may be sure, pulled with a 
will, and soon we came to the spot to find only the man's hat, 
he having sunk beneath the waves and was seen no more ! 

"We rowed all about for a half an hour or more and then 
returned sorrowfully to the ship. Not till we were again on 
board did I know who the poor victim was, but then I learned 
that it was Henry Hargrave, one of our able seamen, who had 
shipped with us for the first time a few days before at Phila- 
delphia, having but just returned from a voyage to the East 
Indies. The way the accident happened, was like this: He 
was standing on the rail of the deck, reaching up and lacing 
the canvas cover on one of the life-boats, which was in the 
davits and chocks just above his head. In pulling one of the 
laces it broke, and the poor fellow, losing his balance, fell 
backward into the sea. 

" Of course the occurrence cast a gloom over the ship for a 
day or two, but on a large steamer with a crew of an hundred 
men, and with several hundred passengers, such things are 
soon forgotten. So, you see, this sailor's life actually hung on 
a single thread, and the thread broke ! 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 19 

" But now I must tell you what to me was the hardest part 
of the whole affair. When we got back to Philadelphia, and 
the ship was made fast to the dock, I hurried on shore to see 
my family. At the big gate going off from the dock I was 
accosted by a young girl of twelve or thirteen years of age, 
who was accompanied by an old and feeble-looking man. She 
said to me, in a very pleasant voice, ' Do you belong on the 
steamer ' Pennsylvania'?' 

" I said, ' Yes, Miss, what do you want ? ' 

" She replied, ' My brother is a sailor on that ship, and just 
before he sailed on her he wrote to us that when he came back 
he would come home. We have not seen him for nine years. 
We live in Cincinnati, and we have come up here to meet him 
and take him home with us.' 

" I said, ' What is your brother's name ? ' 

" She replied, ' Henry Hargrave.' 

" The cold chills ran up and down my back, and I knew not 
what to say. I finally stammered out that there was no one 
by that name that came back with us, but that I would go on 
board and make inquiries and come and tell them. As I 
reached the ship I met Captain Harris going ashore, and 
related to him what had just taken place. 

" He said to me, ' I can't bear to tell them, Mr. Wilkinson, 
and you will have to attend to it for me. Tell them that we 
left him very sick in the hospital at Liverpool, and then we 
can write and tell them the truth afterward.' 

" So I had to go back and deceive them (but, as I thought, 
mercifully) in this way. I found that the mother had also 
come up from Cincinnati to meet her sailor-boy, and was then 
at the lodging-house awaiting his footstep. I took them to a 
more respectable lodging-house than they had been taken to 
by a runner, and advised them to start for home as soon as, 
possible, promising to write to them as soon as I could about 



20 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

their son. I saw them safely on the cars the next day, and 
they went back home, sorrowfully, but still with hope that 
their dear boy would yet come home to them. In a day or 
two I wrote them a long letter, telling them the whole truth, 
and the purser sent to them the poor fellow's kit and what 
money he had in his chest — not much was it, I assure you, for 
poor Jack has too many temptations, and is too free with his 
money to ever save up much. Well, I have spun you a long 
yarn, and now, as it is eight bells, I will turn in for four hours." 

The state-room next to mine, on the upper deck, was 
occupied by Mr. David Logan, a Scotchman of the most 
pronounced type. He has been a great traveler and there 
are probably but few men that have had as many peculiar 
and interesting experiences as he. I have sat for hours and 
listened to his adventures in many lands, while pursuing his 
vocation as a naturalist. He is forty-six years of age, was 
born in Paisley, Scotland, and came to America in 1852. In 
the year 1861 he started for the West Indies, and, after 
visiting many of these islands, and making large collections of 
insects, butterflies and orchids, he went to Central America 
and Honduras, and then to Old Mexico. He was gone on 
this trip nine years. He then went to Africa, and among the 
collections he made there, was a giant or Goliath beetle, a 
rare specimen, for which he received twenty pounds, or, in 
our money, one hundred dollars. His sales of specimens are 
generally made to the museums of England, they paying far 
better prices than museums or collectors in this country. 

After his trip to Africa, he again went to Central America, 
and while there visited the remarkable and prehistoric ruins 
in Yucatan ; his descriptions of which are exceedingly inter- 
esting. Mr. Logan is now on his way to Venezuela, which 
country he will certainly exhaust of beetles and all other 
insects, butterflies, and orchids — or, at least, two or three good 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 2 t 

specimens of each variety. Mr. Logan says that he has a 
standing offer of three thousand dollars for one particular 
variety of orchid, and he has great hopes that it is to be found 
in Venezuela. 

Another of my fellow-voyagers was Mr. Angell of New 
York, a young man engaged in mercantile business although a 
graduate of Yale College. He, like myself, is traveling for 
pleasure, and will make the round trip on this steamer. He 
is an amateur entomologist, and so is Mr. Henry F. Rudloff, 
a German resident of Venezuela, who is a civil engineer, and. 
is now returning on this steamer from a business visit to New 
York. A naturalist and two entomologists meeting on a 
steamer by mere chance, among a passenger list of only 
twenty, is quite a coincidence. It was a picnic to hear them, 
talk bugs ! 

Among our passengers was a Spanish student returning froim 
some college in the United States, to his home in the city of 
Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Also another Spanish 
gentleman who, with his wife and sister-in-law, was returning 
to Venezuela from an extended tour through our country. 

Then there were Mr. H. T. Livingston, an old retired mer- 
chant of New York City, a courtly gentleman, and his son,. 
a young man of about thirty years of age, who were seeking 
a change of climate for the benefit of their health. Another 
pleasant traveler was a Mr. Davis, an American, who has 
large mining interests in Venezuela. We had but five lady 
passengers, and one of these was Miss N. who, with her father, 
was going to Curacao to try the air of that island for some 
lung trouble. Miss N. is a good musician, and after recovering 
from the effects of a slight attack of seasickness, she con- 
tributed largely to the enjoyment of our outward passage, by 
singing many of the dear old songs of our native land, and on 
the Sabbath leading us with voice and piano in the familiar 



2 2 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

hymns in which all citizens of a Christian land have a common 
interest, and in the singing of which I have always found 
brings together almost immediately, and in a most friendly 
manner, all American travelers. 

There was but one other passenger whom I will mention 
particularly. About a half an hour before our steamer left 
her dock, as I stood watching the passengers as they came on 
board, a carriage drove up and a young man was helped out 
by the driver. A lady was in the carriage and the young 
man kissed her good-by through the door, as she did not 
alight. He wore a long English ulster which came down 
nearly to his feet, and his neck and face were closely muffled 
up with a shawl, although the day was warm. His trunk and 
satchel were taken by the porter to a state-room on deck, the 
second one from mine, and he slowly followed. He had his 
dinner brought to his state-room and I saw no more of him 
until the next morning. I then saluted him and asked how 
he had passed the night. He replied in a whisper that he 
had not slept so well in two months and then explained, very 
briefly, that he had lost his voice and he was going to the 
equator, if necessary, to try and find it. I expressed my 
sympathy, which was the more sincere as I had myself met 
with the same misfortune about twenty-five years ago. I told 
him not to try to talk, but that I would talk to him and would 
not expect any reply that would require him to use his vocal 
powers. I then related to him my experience and predicted 
•that in his case, as it had occurred in mine, the voice would 
come back when he had been in a very hot climate a few 
days. 

His name, as I learned from the purser, was Morrison, but 
who he was, or what his business, no one had any idea. A 
more silent man I never met and he seemed to shun every one 
.except myself. He endured me, at any rate, with patience, 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 23 

and I continued to hold a very one-sided conversation with 
him at intervals for several days. On Sunday he came for 
the first time into the Social Hall and listened attentively to 
the hymns we sung, led by Miss N. 

On Monday morning he returned my greeting with a 
decided smile, and I told him that he was looking much 
better, and that I expected to hear his voice by the time we 
reached Curacao. This is pronounced " Cure-a-so," with the 
accent on the last syllable, and he said he hoped it would also 
" cure a cold." 

This feeble attempt at wit encouraged me to ask him if he 
could not help me by and by to bring out a little more talent 
in our passenger list. He made no response, but having "put 
my foot in it," I proceeded to ask him if he had any knowl- 
edge of music, and he replied "a little." I suggested, inquir- 
ingly, that perhaps he played on some instrument and he said 
he used to play the banjo slightly. I soon took occasion 
to inquire of the steward if any of the colored waiters had a 
banjo, and he said that one of them had. I hunted it up and 
had it made ready for use that evening. 

After dinner at 6 P. M., the captain, who, by conversation, 
we had ascertained was what he styled a " salt-water astrono- 
mer," consented to give us a little talk about the stars. It 
was a most lovely night, and we all sat in a circle on the deck 
while Captain Hess, in a most interesting manner, pointed out 
to us the stars and constellations, and the Southern Cross 
and the " false cross," and in a very unassuming manner dis- 
played a knowledge of the heavenly bodies that astonished us. 
Mr. Morrison, at my urgent solicitation, had joined us, and at 
the conclusion of the lecture I quietly placed the banjo across 
his knees and rather anxiously awaited the result. He looked 
up at me reproachfully but took up the instrument and tried 
its tone. In a moment he had it tuned and then he played it 



24 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

in a masterly manner. His auditors were so delighted that he 
was kept playing for nearly an hour, and it was unanimously 
voted that a new era of enjoyment had begun. 

I shall have occasion to refer again to Mr. Morrison, and will 
only add at this time that he soon got over the blues, and 
when his voice did come to him a few days after this, he used 
it to our great amusement in singing some of the most rollick- 
ing and enjoyable songs that I ever listened to. 

On Saturday morning, March 5th, the weather still being 
perfectly beautiful, we saw for the first time since leaving 
Sandy Hook, a vessel on our starboard bow. Here we are 
nearly nine hundred miles from New York, and until now have 
not seen a single vessel ! Does not this give one a realizing 
sense of the immensity of the ocean? To be sure our course 
is rather out from the usual course of steamers and sailing 
vessels to the southern ports. But here away off to the west- 
ward we now plainly see a full-rigged ship. She shows up 
beautifully through the spy-glass, and one of our passengers 
pronounces her to be a United States man-of-war — one of the 
school or training-ships, that are cruising in these waters. 
Soon two other sails are descried right ahead of us and two 
more on the port bow, making five in all for us to look at 
through the spy-glasses and field-glasses. 

About this time the captain succeeds, with a line and large 
hooks, in pulling on board a fragment of a sea-plant or weed 
on which the little white coral insect is plainly seen with the 

naked eye. 

Now the great full-rigged ship passes down the horizon 
almost out of sight, and the captain says she is but a merchant 
ship and not a man-of-war. Then sail along within a mile of 
us a three-masted schooner and two barks, all bound, we 
presume, for North America, under a fine northeast breeze. 
On one of the barks I counted twenty sails all set and full of 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 25 

wind. Where these beautiful white-winged ships are from, or 
whither bound, are matters of pure conjecture. I am reminded 
of T.Buchanan Read's beautiful poem called "Drifting," a 
verse or two of which read thus: 

Yon deep bark goes 

Where traffic blows, 

From lands of sun to lands of snows; — 

This happier one, 

Its course is run 

From lands of snows to lands of sun. 

O, happy ship, 

To rise and dip, 

With the blue crystal at your lip ! 

O, happy crew, 

My heart, with you 

Sails, and sails, and sings anew ! 

No more, no more 

The worldly shore 

Upbraids me with its loud uproar ! 

With dreamful eyes 

My spirit lies 

Under the walls of Paradise ! 

Our ship is steaming along, assisted by her sails filled with a 
light breeze from the northeast. Her sails consist of a fore- 
sail or spenser, gaff-top sail, fore-stay sail, jib, main-stay sail, 
and maintop-mast-stay sail. 

Captain Hess has just told me that we now begin to feel the 
trade-winds. He detects them by the long gentle swell coming 
toward us from the southeast, and by the light fleecy clouds 
off to the east and southeast. These trade-winds sometimes 
develop into a first-class hurricane, but not usually at this 
season of the year. May we be spared — for in my enthusiasm 
for ocean experience I think I will draw the line at hurricanes! 



26 THE SPANISH MAIN. 



CHAPTER IV. 

On the Caribbean Sea. 

f 

" Behold the sea, 

The opaline, the plentiful and strong, 

Yet beautiful as is the rose in June, 

Fresh as the dewy rainbow in July ; 

Sea full of food, the nourisher of kinds ; 

Purger of earth, and medicine of men ! " 

CAN I ever forget those beautiful days and magnificent 
nights on the Caribbean Sea ! By the time that we 
entered it, through the Mona Passage, we had all become as 
well acquainted as if we had been neighbors for years. The 
dolce far niente of an ocean voyage, over a lovely summer sea, 
is to me the most delightful experience to be had in this 
sublunary sphere. On such a voyage every one appears at his 
best. The invigorating air seems not only to fill the lungs 
with a new lease of life, and the whole body with a keen 
physical enjoyment, but also fills the heart with good impulses 
and kindly feelings toward those around you. It inspires you 
with noble thoughts and takes away, at least for the nonce, 
all selfishness, all pride, all animosity — and you thank God 
that you are one of His creatures and have the faculty of 
thought, and can enjoy His beautiful ocean, not only with two 
or three of your five senses, but with your soul ! Such is the 
broad, beneficent influence of the ocean ! It exhilarates, it 
sharpens the appetite, it makes you feel young again, and 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 27 

strong, and amiable, and honest, and loving, and a little 
religious withal ! 

We watched the sun as it went down into the sea, bathed 
in a splendor impossible to imitate on canvas or describe with 
language. Not less beautiful is the glorious rising of the 
great orb in the sweet cool morning, and he who would not 
leave his state-room to witness this entrancing sight, is like 
the man who, unmoved by music and the concord of sweet 
sounds, is not to be trusted, but is fit only for treason, 
stratagem and spoils. 

One night as we sat on the deck, watching the moonbeams 
as they played over the quiet sea, a sweet voice, that we had 
all learned to love, sang to us that exquisite " Evening Song 
to the Virgin." We had even before this been rather quiet, 
for the scene was one that inspired thought and repressed 
conversation — and now this sweet hymn, with its holy senti- 
ment so appropriate to such an hour, made a deep impression 
on all who heard it, and as- we separated for the night, very 
quietly, it seemed as if the "Adieus" and "Good-nights" 
were given with a heartiness that bespoke a deeper feeling 
than the ordinary parting word betrays. 

Evening Song to the Virgin. 

"Ave sanctissima, we lift our souls to thee; 
Ora pro nobis, 'tis nightfall on the sea. 
Watch us while shadows lie 
Far o'er the water spread, 
Hear the heart's lonely sigh, 

Thine, too, hath bled. 
Thou that hast looked on death, 

Aid us when death is near ; 
Whisper of heav'n to faith, 

Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, hear ! 
Ora pro nobis, the waves must rock our sleep, 
Ora, Mater, ora, Star of the deep ! 



2 8 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

" Ave sanctissima, we lift our souls to thee ; 
Ora pro nobis, 'tis nightfall on the sea. 
Oh, thou whose virtues shine 

With brightest purity, 
Come, and each thought refine, 

Till pure like thee. 
Oh, save our souls from ill ; 

Guard thou our lives from fear ; 
Our hearts with pleasure fill : 

Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, hear. 
Ora pro nobis, the waves must rock our sleep, 
Ora, Mater, ora, Star of the deep ! " 

I seldom retired to my state-room before midnight. I pre- 
ferred rather to pace the deck with one of the officers, or 
lolling back in my steamer chair and gazing upon the waters — 
sometimes silvery in the radiance of the moon, and at other 
times gleaming and shining with a phosphorescent light — 
give rein to my thoughts. Ah, true as the needle to the pole 
did they always turn lovingly to my native land, and to that 
one little spot in the great world that is known and cherished 
by all loving hearts under the sweet appellation of Home. 

When the Sun Sinks to Rest. 

"When the sun sinks to rest, 

And the star of the west 
Sheds its soft silver light o'er the sea ; 

What sweet thoughts arise, 

As the dim twilight dies — 
For then I am thinking of thee ! 

"Oh! then crowding fast 

Come the joys of the past, 
Through the dimness of days long gone by, 

Like the stars peeping out, 

Through the darkness about, 
From the soft silent depth of the sky. 



'THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 2Q 

"And thus, as the night 

Grows more lovely and bright 
With the clustering of planet and star, 

So this darkness of mine 

Wins a radiance divine 
From the light that still lingers afar. 

"Then welcome the night, 
With its soft holy light ! 
In its silence my heart is more free 
The rude world to forget, 
Where no pleasure I've met 
: Since the hour that I parted from thee. " 

But I must relate a little yarn that was reeled off to me on 
one of those nights on the Caribbean Sea : 



A Thrilling Experience. 

"A few years ago," said Mr. Wilkinson, our first officer, 
" when I was first mate of the bark 'Scud,' on a voyage from 
Philadelphia to La Guayra, we were sailing along about three 
knots an hour one very dark night in the Caribbean Sea, with- 
in seventy-five or eighty miles of the Venezuelan coast. The 
weather had been wet and nasty, and there was quite a sea 
running. The captain said he guessed he would go below, 
and I went down with him to light my pipe to keep me com- 
pany during my watch. As I returned on deck I put my two 
hands out on the rail, which was a very low one, not over 
sixteen inches high, to peer out into the darkness. Coming 
out from the light of the cabin to the inky blackness of the 
night, I thought I saw a light off to the leeward. I took my 
hands off the rail and drew back to take my pipe out of my 
mouth to take another look from a standing position. Seeing 
nothing I stretched my hands to the rail to resume my former 
position. The bark at that moment gave a sudden lurch and 



30 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

my hands, instead of grasping the rail, went over it, and, my feet 
slipping on the wet deck at the same moment, I was in the 
twinkling of an eye plunged into the sea ! As soon as I came 
to the surface I yelled with all my might, ■ Throw me a rope.' 
Fortunately the man at the wheel heard me, and putting the 
helm hard down, threw the bark up into the wind. As she 
forged by me the ' bumbkin,' a short spar over the quarter 
to which the main braces are led, pitched, in the rolling of the 
vessel, so near me that I grabbed at it, but only touched it 
with my fingers. I now thought quick as a flash of a new cod 
line that I had baited with a white rag and thrown over during 
the afternoon with the hope of catching a fish. I said to my- 
self, ' Old boy, that is your only chance,' and struck out 
across the wake of the vessel, throwing my arms out in the 
hope of finding that line. Sure enough I struck it, but not 
with my hands but with my neck, and grasping it I again hal- 
looed for a rope. In a minute more I felt a rope floating 
against me, and, taking two or three turns of it around my 
body under my arms, I sang out, ' Haul in.' This they did 
with a will, and soon I was safe again on the deck of the bark. 

" The captain's nerves were completely unstrung, and as he 
put his hands over my shoulders in a sort of an embrace, he 
said, ' My God, Wilkinson, if we had lost you how could I 
have ever gone home and told your old woman ? ' 

"Yes, that was a close call, and my danger of drowning was 
no greater than that of being killed by one of the man-eating 
sharks of which the Caribbean Sea is full." 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 3 1 



CHAPTER V. 

The Island of Curacao. 

AT noon, March 8th, the tropical island of Curacao was 
plainly in sight, and our captain assured us that we 
should enter the harbor before sunset. The rugged coasts are 
eagerly scanned through our spy-glasses, and about four 
o'clock, when we are within five miles of the harbor, our atten- 
tion is directed to the extensive phosphate works of an 
English company on the coast side of a mountain. Ninety- 
seven per cent, of the mountain is phosphate of lime, and the 
company has made a great deal of money in mining and 
exporting it. They pay a royalty to the Dutch government 
on the production, amounting to over $200,000 per year. 
Their dock, and harbor, and buildings, and vessels, and the 
tramway up the side of the mountain, are plainly seen as we 
steam along the coast. 

A little further on we have a fine view of an old Spanish 
castle on the cliffs on a bay called Curacao Bay, or " Spanish 
Water," at the mouth of one of the beautiful lagoons with 
which this island abounds. This castle was built by the Span- 
iards in the year 1527. 

But before we enter the harbor, a few facts concerning the 
history of Curacoa would seem to be the proper thing to 
relate, but as statistics are invariably stupid, I will endeavor to 
give the necessary data as briefly as possible. 

The island was discovered in 1499 by Alonzo de Ojeda and 
Americus Vespucius. It was held by the Spanish from 1527 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 33 

to 1634, when it was taken from them by the Dutch. It is 
said that when discovered (and afterward settled) by the 
Spaniards, the island was inhabited by a race of Indians so 
noble in stature that they were called giants, all being over 
six feet, and many seven feet tall. But they were heathen and 
cannibals, and the Spaniards, with their usual happy blending 
of religion and murder, proceeded to conquer and convert, and 
after making them kiss the true cross, they massacred them 
without delay, thus simultaneously punishing them for eating 
human flesh, and sending them joyfully to heaven. It is two 
hundred and fifty-seven years since the bloody flag of Spain 
ivaved over the fair island of Curacao, but she left her relig- 
ious imprint there, and to-day, of the twenty-seven thousand 
inhabitants, more than twenty thousand are of the Roman 
Catholic faith. 

Then the island was held by the Dutch till the latter part of 
the eighteenth century, when it was captured by the British, 
was restored to Holland in 1802, again seized by England in 
1807, and finally given up to the Dutch in 18 16, by whom it is 
now held and governed. 

It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about forty-two miles 

from the north coast of Venezuela, and is about forty-one miles 

long and from three to seven miles broad. It is not of volcanic 

origin, but, judging by its formation and other circumstances, 

the theory is that it formerly was part of the South American 

main-land. The exports of Curacao are phosphate of lime, 

salt, divi-divi, orange peel, wool, hides, skins, aloes and peanuts. 

Its population is about 27,000 — 7,000 white and 20,000 colored 

and black. The religious proclivities of its inhabitants are 

exhibited by 20,000 professing the Roman Catholic faith, 4,500 

adhering to the Reformed Church of Holland, and 2,500 

worshiping under the old Mosaic form. This, perhaps, is 

sufficient to relate of its past history, size, exports, population 
3 



34 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

and religion, and what further I will have to say of the island 
will be a relation of my experience while there, and a few 
desultory remarks on the impressions received by what I saw 
and heard. 

There are but two licensed pilots at Curacao, one a tall, 
venerable old man, with a long white beard, and the other a 
coal-black negro. The white man boarded our steamer and 
took us through the narrow entrance of the harbor, and, while 
we remained in Curacao, I could not help noticing that even 
here, where the colored race far outnumber the white, the 
Caucasian still holds the "bulge" on his darker brother, for 
the white pilot was constantly taking in and out the big 
steamers, while the other had to be content with the lesser 
crafts and smaller fees. 

On either side of the entrance to the harbor are the frowning 
forts, named, respectively, Fort Amsterdam and Fort Rif, both 
built by the Dutch about the year 1635. To speak of a fort 
without prefixing the adjective " frowning" would be in bad 
form, but the "frown" that these two poor feeble old relics of 
the 17th century assume in this age of heavy ordnance is laugh- 
able, indeed. But they are picturesque, and also useful to a 
certain degree, because they furnish a sort of a home and 
employment to a few hundred comically-dressed and stupid- 
looking Dutch soldiers, and there is a gun somewhere in one 
of them that is fired off at sunrise, at noon, at sunset, and at 
eight o'clock in the evening. Yes, and that gun is also fired 
off " semi-occasionally " to celebrate and give publicity to 
another event of great importance to these islanders. Can 
you guess what it is? As I am sure you cannot, I will not 
keep you in suspense, but tell you at once that it is dis- 
charged whenever the mail is distributed and ready to be 
delivered! It reminded me of a time when I lived in a town 
in Indiana, on the Wabash, where the whole population had 



36 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

the "fever and ague" so bad that the town bell was rung 
daily at stated intervals for everybody to take quinine ! 

Adjoining the fort on the right as you enter (which is Fort 
Amsterdam) is the citadel, which is quite extensive in earth- 
works, and having a large parade-ground, around which are 
the barracks. The governor's palace is also located here. It 
is a large, handsome structure, with inviting looking balconies, 
and plenty of trees and shrubbery and blooming flowers all 
about it. Quite a show of military is constantly kept up, and 
the guards are to be seen in every direction in and around the 
fort and the governor's palace. A more innocent and peaceful- 
looking lot of soldiers, however, I never saw, and I offered to 
bet a box of cigars with one of my fellow-travelers that none 
■of their guns were loaded. 

The harbor is a lagoon, not more than three or four hundred 
feet wide, and extends into the island about three-quarters 
of a mile or so, where it widens and forms an extensive lake 
called the " Schattegat." The tide ebbs and flows all through 
this deep lagoon into the Schattegat, and there is plenty of 
water for several miles up into the interior of the island for 
the largest vessels in the world. While the whole of this 
lagoon ( for the lake and all is but a lagoon) may properly be 
called the harbor of Curacao, and a most completely land- 
locked one it is, yet the narrow part of it, extending from 
Forts Amsterdam and Rif, to where it widens into the Schat- 
tegat, a distance, I believe, of not over a mile, is the only part 
that is used as the harbor. Here, on either side, the steamers 
and vessels can come right up to the wharves. 

The harbor divides the town in two. The east side is in 
three divisions, called, respectively, " Wilhelmstadt," named 
after one of the five princes of Orange, " Pietermaay " and 
" Scharlo." Across the lagoon is called " Otrabanda," which 
means " other side," and here our steamer came to her wharf. 



38 



THE SPANISH MAIN. 



The chief business part of the city is Wilhelmstadt, that 
being where all the principal stores are located. The other 
three divisions are mostly given up to residences, churches, 
and warehouses along the docks. All sections of the place 
present very pleasing pictures, the houses being substantially 
built of brick and stone and stuccoed, and all painted yellow 




A CURACAO FERRYMAN. 



with white trimmings, and with bright red tile roofs. All the 
buildings look very old, and some, being of the Moorish style 
of architecture, doubtless date back to the 16th century, when 
the Spaniards had a thriving colony here. 

I have never been to Holland, but those who have, and have 
been to Curacao also, say that it resembles, very strongly, the 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 39 

Dutch towns on the Zuyder Zee. Perhaps one-third of the 
population reside in Otrabanda, and, consequently, the ferry 
business between there and Wilhelmstadt, Pietermaay and 
Scharlo, across the harbor, is quite lively. It is carried on by 
one hundred and fifty-six licensed and numbered flat-boats, 
each propelled by one-man power. The colored skipper sculls 
the boat with a heavy-bladed oar, leaning his forehead hard 
against the end of it, as, with his hands and arms, he gives it 
the necessary motion. This is sculling in a double sense, and 
the dullest wit who ever goes over this "Twickenham" ferry 
never fails to remark that there is a good deal of head-tvork 
about the business. The ferriage is five Dutch coppers, about 
two cents of our money, but if you hand out a small piece of 
silver you get no change any more than you do at the candy 
or flower booth of a church fair. They can't understand 
English at all when change is needed, and we soon learned 
the racket and kept ourselves supplied with an abundance of 
the small copper coins of the realm. And this leads me to 
remark that the language spoken in Curacao is a mixture of 
Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese, with a little English thrown 
in for seasoning. It makes a very peculiar dialect, and is 
called papiamento. To hear it gabbled by the negroes and 
negresses, as they laugh and flirt by the water-side, you come 
to the conclusion that the meaning of papiamento is Irish stew 
or boarding-house hash — a little of everything. But the busi- 
ness men, who, by the way, are largely made up of Jews, 
nearly all speak English, and know how to drive a shrewd 
bargain in a language and a style that you thoroughly under- 
stand. The streets are mostly very narrow ones, like the 
streets of all southern or tropical towns and cities first settled 
by the Spaniards. I have often speculated on the reason for 
this, for there must have been a reason. If it was for greater 
shade and a cooler atmosphere, I think the benefit gained in 



40 



THE SPANISH MAIN. 



this regard is more than overbalanced by the increased filthi- 
ness of the narrow passages — too greatly honored to be called 
streets — and the difficulty of getting enough of heaven's fresh 
air into them to carry off the vile odors. 

While there are a fair number of pretty good stores in 




THEY CARRY THEIR BURDENS ON THEIR HEADS 
AND NONE IN THEIR HEARTS. CURACAO. 



Wilhelmstadt, carrying rather large stocks, there are innumer- 
able little shops, the excessive smallness of which you can 
scarcely imagine. For instance, I saw a shoe-shop, four feet 
wide by eight feet long, with four men at work in it, and a 
tailor-shop, next door, perhaps a foot or two larger, with six 
men working in it ! Every doorway is a store-room for a half- 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 



41 



dressed negro woman to display, for sale, her trays and baskets 
of sweetmeats, vegetables, etc. All the negro women carry 
their burdens on their heads. They evidently have none to 
carry in their hearts, like thousands of their fairer and more 
enlightened sisters, and they go laughing and talking along,- 

HI 



HP 

""""fli 
.ii'ii, 1 

iil'i !' i-irl 



JBiiy., 



mm 



PI 








THE AIRY FAIRY LILIAN, WHO WASHED 
MY LINEN. CURACAO. 

without apparently giving a single thought to the tray, or tub, 
or pail, or basket, or bundle so nicely balanced on their head. 
The harbor and the sea is the general wash-tub for the lower 
classes. Here they wash their clothes, laying them on the 
rocks and beating them with a club, and, after rinsing and 
wringing, they replace them in the tub, and, balancing it on 
their head, march off to the hill-side to spread them out to 



42 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

•dry. I do not think they understand the intricate modern 
invention of a clothes-line, and I would not, for the world, 
disturb their sweet and simple contentment by an innovation 
such as that. I had three new linen shirts soaked in the 
harbor, beaten with a club ( I was not wearing them at the 
time), and dried on a cactus bush, and, though bearing plenty 
of evidence of the fearful ordeal, they will do to wear around 
home, I fondly hope, for several weeks yet ! 

The negro women all wear turbans on their heads, and they 
don't seem to care about the color, "so long as it is red." 
Their costume consists of but one other garment, and this is 
a light calico dress, made en train. In front it is quite short, 
displaying, in bold relief, their bare feet and ankles, but to 
have it trail behind seems to be the inexorable law of colored 
fashion in Curacao. 

The negro children, from one to five years of age, toddle 
about in pure innocence, clothed only in the simplicity of 
Nature, which may be said to cover them as with a garment, 
only the garment is non est. 

The living of these ignorant negroes is about as simple as 
their dress. Those who propel the ferry-boats sleep in them 
and eat the simple articles that are peddled about by the 
negro women, who carry them in trays on their heads. Those 
who keep house do so in the most primitive manner, in 
tenement houses that appeared to be crowded with occupants. 
Their rooms have scarcely any furniture, and what there is 
seems to have been in use for many generations past. The 
drinking habit prevails, to a great extent, and 1 was told that 
these poor ignorant creatures spend all their money (except 
what is absolutely necessary for food and a trifle of clothing) 
for intoxicating liquors. 

In reflecting on the degraded condition of these negro 
laborers of Curacao, I am reminded of some of the utterances 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 



43 



of that noble champion of Labor in the United States, T. V. 
Powderly, General Master Workman of the Order of Knights 
of Labor. He strikes at the root of the whole trouble amongst 
the laboring classes when he declares that "ignorance and 
intemperance are the twin evils that keep the working classes 



• - 




ENTICED INTO THE PHOTOGRAPHER S ROOM. 
CURACAO. 

in poverty, and at which he intends to strike the hardest 
blows of which he is capable." Again, he says, and I wish it 
could be posted in every factory and workshop throughout 
the land : " I will oppose no reform or reformer, but will seek 
to aid their legitimate efforts by battling for the education of 
the children of the land ; by protesting against the spending 



44 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

of the hard earnings of labor in the saloon and brothel. Ignor- 
ance begets intemperance, intemperance turns freemen into 
slaves; slavery begets monopoly, monopoly bribes congresses 
and legislatures, throttles justice by bribing the courts, and 
begets anarchy. Strike a telling blow at anarchy, monopoly, 
slavery and intemperance by killing ignorance in the school- 
room. Let us demand the compulsory education of American 
youth." 

The manufactures of Curacao amount to but little. A pretty 
sort of jewelry is made of gold obtained at Aruba, an island 
near by. Some neat little work-boxes and small writing-desks 
are also made of mahogany. 

As Curacao is, practically, a free port, there being but one- 
and a half per cent, duty on imports, all European goods can, 
be obtained cheaper there than in the United States. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 45 



CHAPTER VI. 

Curacao. 

THERE are a great many small vessels sailing between 
here and the various sea-ports of Venezuela. The thirty 
per cent, duty charged by the Venezuelan government on all 
imports (except machinery, which is free) is a great temptation 
and incentive to smuggle goods from Curacao to that coast, 
and I learned that smuggling is carried on very largely by 
means of these small, fast-sailing schooners that are seen in 
the harbor. 

In the old days of two or three centuries ago, this island 
was one of the favorite lurking-places of the pirates of the 
Spanish Main. Here, in these deep lagoons, sheltered from 
storms and entirely hidden from view by the hills and cliffs, 
they lay in wait for the rich Spanish galleon laden with the 
gold of the Incas, or the almost equally richly r laden merchant- 
men with wine and silks, in the Caribbean Sea, and when 
sighted they gave chase, and seldom did their prey escape. 
Seldom, also, did they take any prisoners. They killed all, 
plundered the vessels and then burned them. They fought 
■hard, lived luxuriously, and died with their boots on. But 
they were all religious ! They had their priests and their 
chapels, gave largely to the Mother Church, and always kept 
their religious accounts square to date ! But the gay and 
festive pirate and the bold buccaneer of the Spanish Main sail 
these beautiful seas no more. Some of their golden plunder is 
said to be still buried in the island of Curacao, but the actors 








"^ : i=s? - "^* ~ ■ " " = ^-- W Mill 




THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 47 

are gone, and if their spirits ever revisit the scenes of their 
former revelry and fierce combats, they disturb not the peace- 
ful, quiet and contented minds of these happy islanders. Only 
the sneaking smuggler remains to remind one of those old 
days when all the islands and the waters of the Spanish Main 
were the paradise of violent men, engaged in unlawful busi- 
ness, and hesitating not to do murder and every other sin of 
the decalogue for the sake of gold. 

But to return to Curacao. I had letters of introduction to 
prominent citizens there from Morris Coster, Esq., editor and 
publisher of the New Amsterdam Gazette, among them one to 
Hon. J. H. W. Gravenhorst, late Governor of the islands of 
Buen Ayer and Aruba, two of the Dutch West India posses- 
sions. I found the governor a very intelligent and hale and 
hearty gentleman of from fifty-five to sixty years of age, resid- 
ing with his family in a finely located mansion overlooking the 
harbor. A more hospitable reception from the governor and 
his excellent wife I never had accorded to me by any one, and 
I was immediately made to feel perfectly at home. The gov- 
ernor's children are all grown up. Two of his daughters are 
married ; one of them, Mrs. Forbes, with her husband, E. H. S. B. 
Forbes, a very genial and well-informed man, resides with her 
father, as does also an unmarried daughter and a son. My first 
visit to this delightful home was the second evening after our 
arrival at Curacao. I took with me Signor Rudloff and Mr. 
Angell, and to this day I am tormented with the thought that to 
Signor Rudloff s fluency in German and Spanish, and to young 
Angell's good looks and glib tongue, I was more indebted 
for my cordial reception and subsequent attentions, than 
to my own substantial worth and thoroughly gentlemanly 
appearance — especially with the female portion of the 
household ! But 'tis ever thus, the sweetest roses of life 
have some thorn that rankles, and the bosom of either man 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 49 

or woman is always tortured with some tinge of jealousy or 
disappointed hopes! 

Another kind letter from a New York friend introduced me 
to Captain L. B. Smith, the United States Consul at Curacao. 
Captain Smith is from Maine, has lived here eleven years, 
and does a large business in ice and lumber which he brings 
in his own vessels from his native state. He generously 
placed at my disposal his beautiful little steam yacht, man- 
aged by his son, a very pleasant and intelligent young man of 
twenty-one. The yacht cost two thousand dollars, and I 
spent so man}/ pleasant hours in her that I had a photograph 
taken, and by the engraver's art I am enabled to give a picture 
of her as she appeared in the lagoon at the foot of the small 
mountain called " Sublica," on the top of which is built Fort 
Nassau. This fort is garrisoned by about fifty Dutch soldiers, 
and is used also as a signal station. Signals displayed on a 
flag-pole make known to the citizens of Curacao the approach 
of vessels, and designate particularly by the various numbers 
and positions of the flags just what kind of a vessel or steamer 
draws near the sacred soil. 

I invited the Gravenhorst family and the three " bug-hunt- 
ers " to accompany me one morning on an excursion in the 
steam launch up the lagoon into the Schattegat. We started 
about seven o'clock, after partaking of a cup of fragrant Mara- 
caibo coffee at the governor's mansion, intending to return at 
the usual breakfast hour of eleven. The evening before, as we 
sat on the governor's piazza, sipping our tea, we had been 
pressed to visit the estate of J. H. B. Gravenhorst (a cousin of 
the governor's) five miles in the country, and, as we recalled 
this invitation, our young skipper said he could land us within 
ten-minute's walk of his plantation. So thither we sped over 
the clear and tranquil waters of this lovely ocean lake. Soon 
avc reached the little dock, and, disembarking, we walked 



5<D THE SPANISH MAIN. 

slowly up a beautifully shaded lane to " our cousin's" planta- 
tion, which has the name of " Gasparito." Here we were met 
by cousin J. H. B. and his wife and daughter, and escorted up 
the wide stone steps to the spacious stone veranda where ten 
large cane rocking-chairs awaited our occupancy ! 

The ten-minute walk had moistened the epidermis of my 
two hundred and twenty-five advoirdupois to such an extent 
that a large cane rocker, a palmetto fan, a glass of cool lemon- 
ade and a strong cigar seemed just what my frail tenement of 
flesh required. Inspiration, or long experience in ministering 
to the wants of visitors from a Northern clime, led our kind 
host to provide just these very articles, and I noticed that our 
" lean and hungry " bug-hunters took very kindly to the rest, 
the zephyr, the refreshment, and the solace afforded by these 
important factors in the comfort of mankind in West India 
climate — the chair, the fan, the lemonade and the cigar. 

The view from this piazza was lovely indeed, and the gov- 
ernor told me that he never sat there gazing on the beautiful 
panorama spread out before him without feeling like " drop- 
ping into poetry," like Silas Wegg ; but he had thus far resisted 
the strong temptation, and had contented himself with making 
pencil sketches of the exquisite land and waterscape. 

In the conservatory of this hospitable abode we were shown a 
great variety of tropical plants and flowers. Many of them were 
growing in boxes, on the ends of which we read in plain English 
the familiar legend, " Premium Safety Oil, 150 Fire Test." 

In the garden we saw the tamarind tree, and, also, the 
saddle tree, any slip of which will grow if inserted in the soil, 
and many other trees and shrubs strange to Northern eyes. 
The fleet-footed and sharp-eyed lizards darted about in every 
direction in the grass, and, to the great joy of the entomolo T 
gists, three new varieties of beetles were captured and pre- 
sented to Mr. Angell. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 51 

Curacao ' is certainly a fine winter resort — an El Dorado for 
invalids. As every Spanish name has some significant meaning, 
I was not at all surprised to learn that Curacao means " heal- 
ing." When in Florida, a year or two ago, I was greatly 
amused at the persistency with which the residents of every 
bog-hole village asserted, " There is no malaria here," when 
it stalks all up and down that much-advertised and overrated 
land, like the " sheeted dead that did squeak and gibber in 
the streets of Rome." 

But here in Curacao (pronounced, as I have before remarked, 
"Cure-a-so") the very name of malaria is unknown, or, to 
distort the words of Buhver, " In the bright lexicon of Curacao 
there is no such word as malaria." 

I should like to see that fine old mansion on the Estado 
Gasparito enlarged and turned into a hotel for the accommo- 
dation of visitors from the North, and though I have no weak 
lungs to be healed, I should like to engage that piazza for my 
abiding-place during the months of February and March of 
every winter. This house was built by a Spanish nobleman 
in the 16th century. It is constructed of sandstone and coral, 
and stuccoed with water-lime. Its present owner keeps it in 
excellent repair, and it has every appearance of being good for 
several more centuries. 

There is a beverage much prized by bon vivaitts, called 
" Curacao liqueur." Of course, you and I (who " never drink ") 
care nothing about this famous decoction, and the mere men- 
tion of it is forced upon me, in my keen desire to be a faithful 
chronicler of all that I can recollect that pertains to the history 
or the traditions of this beautiful isle of the sea. Know, then, 
that "Curacao liqueur" though made in large quantities, and, 
alas, as I fear, drunk also in large quantities, is not, and never 
was, made in Curacao ! It is distilled in Holland only, and 
takes its name simply from the aromatic flavor given to it by 



52 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

the peel of an orange indigenous to the soil of Curacao. This 
orange, which is not good to eat, but the peel of which is so 
highly prized by distillers in Holland, is cultivated by mine 
host Gravenhorst on his plantation Gasparito. The peel, only, 
is exported, and Mr. G. derives a large income from this 
.peculiar, though, to our mind, slightly reprehensible crop! So 
when you are offered a glass of Curacao liqueur (of course, as a 
medicine only), you will remember this interesting fact which 
I have told to you regarding the derivation of its name. Huni 
.soit qui mal y pense ! 

But the " foot of Time," which " travels in divers paces with 
■divers persons," was "swift," with us, and we were admonished 
by our young captain that if we would reach our steamer at 
'the breakfast hour we must take our departure. Reluctantly 
.the farewells were said, and we left that lovely island home, 
sincerely regretting our visit there had necessarily been so 
:short. Before returning to the dock, we made the entire 
-circuit of the Schattegat. At various points we saw beautiful 
country-seats, nearly all of which had pretty names like 
" Pareda," and " Bleinheim," but one had the scriptural name 
of Mt. Ararat ! We reached the steamer Philadelphia at 
precisely eleven o'clock, full of enthusiasm (equaled only by 
our appetites), and joined our genial Captain Hess in doing 
full justice to a breakfast at which some fine fresh fish formed 
a prominent part. 

At noon of this eventful day we had to say good-by to Mr. 
Logan, who took a small steamer to Maracaibo. It was with 
sorrow that we parted with one of our trio of bug-hunters. 
We had held a strong hand all the voyage, for " three of a 
kind beats two pairs," but now we have but a single pair and 
our spirits are depressed. We pass, and throw up our hand ! 

The good people of Curacao have but few amusements, such 
as concerts, theatrical entertainments, and the like, but they 




h 



m 



: III l 



54 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

are strong in clubs. In company with Consul Smith, we 
visited " Geehazelhead " Club, in Wilhelmstadt, and staid an 
hour in its pleasant parlors. I have spelled the name of this 
club as I caught it by word of mouth, but, upon further thought 
and research, I am rather inclined to think that the word is 
" Gezeligheid," and means "sociability." If you have any 
loose or false teeth, I would not advise you to try to pronounce 
it. I noticed that Captain Smith looked as if he was suffering 
from a slight paralytic stroke after he gave it to me. 

There was a tidal wave September 23, 1877, which damaged 
the town of Wilhelmstadt to the amount of six hundred thou- 
sand dollars. This estimate, however, I believe includes the 
loss of two or three small vessels, which were driven out to sea 
and never heard from afterward. The ruin wrought by this 
mighty wave can still be partially seen, although many of the 
houses destroyed have since been rebuilt. My friend, Mr. 
Forbes, was one of the victims of this terrible visitation of the 
hurricane and tidal wave. His house was completely wrecked, 
and he and his wife escaped from it but a few moments before 
it fell in ruins. A previous storm, on the 24th of June, 183 1, 
raged with great violence on the island and caused severe 
damage, but to the adjacent islands of Buen Ayer and Aruba 
it was of a more serious nature than to Curacao. 

There are so many interesting things to tell about this island 
that I find I must omit many, or I shall prolong this narrative 
to an unpardonable length. But I cannot avoid relating here 
a bit of biography given me by Governor Gravenhorst, as he 
pointed out to me the spot where had, until recently, lain the 
remains of one of the heroes of the South American War of 
Independence. 

Admiral Louis Brion was born in Curacao, July 6, 1782, and 
was educated in Amsterdam. He returned from Holland to 
this island in 1799, and, obtaining the rank of captain in the 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 55 

militia here, he served in 1804 against the English, under 
command of Commodore Murry, who were entrenched on the 
mountian called " Kabrutenberg," in the neighborhood of 
Fort Beckenberg, which he attacked with but one hundred 
and sixty men, and after a most desperate battle put the 
English to flight. 

Afterward, under the renowned General Simon Bolivar, 
known as the Liberator of South America, he fought with great 
bravery, and for his eminent services in these wars of inde- 
pendence, not only as a soldier, but in bringing stores and 
arms from London, in his own vessels, for the republican 
forces, in their prolonged and patriotic struggle against the 
Spanish tyranny, he was created admiral. It is said that he 
studied navigation in the United States. 

His career was characterized by great bravery and skill in 
handling his fleet of gun-boats, in his numerous engagements 
with the Spanish men-of-war ; but he did not live to see the 
Spaniards dispossessed of the country that they had so long 
ruled over and plundered. He returned from South America 
to Curacao in 1821, and died there the twenty-first of Septem- 
ber, the same year, and was buried at " Rosentak," near the 
country seat of Gasparito. In September, 1881, just sixty 
years after his death, his ashes were disinterred by order of 
Guzman Blanco, the President of Venezuela, and conveyed 
with great pomp and ceremony to Caracas, where they now lie 
with the ashes of many other South American heroes, in the 
Pantheon in that city. 

Mine host of Gasparito, Mr. J. H. B. Gravenhorst, witnessed 
the disinterment of the ashes of this illustrious man, and 
inspired by the interesting occasion wrote some verses, in 
Dutch, to the memory of Admiral Brion, a printed copy of 
which was given me by the governor. They have been trans- 
lated for me by Rev. William Hall, of New York, and I take 
pleasure in giving both the original and the translation : 



56 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

Eenige Regels 

Toegewyd aan de nagedachtenis van den Admiraal Louis Brion by de opdelving 
van zyn staff elyk overschot te Ciiracao op den iyden September, 1881. 

Niet langer hier vertoefd, niet langer hier gerust 

Vergeten, onbekend, door niemand hier beweend ; 

Men roept U op, Brion ; daar ginds op d'overkust 

Eischt men Uw dierbaar stof, vraagt men om Uw gebeent' : 

U dan voor 't laatst gedankt, nogmaals voor U gerouwd. 

Columbia ! gy wilt Brion, uw' redder, eeren ; 

't Is of zyn droeve schim my by zyn graf weerhoudt 

En my van tranen spreekt, van bloed en overheeren 

Van Venezuela's volk, in ketens eens geslagen, 

Van koningen beroofd van troon, van land en goed ; 

Van misdaad, wanhoop, duldeloos lyden, plagen, 

Van ongekende wreedheid, dorst naar goud en bloed ; 

't Is of zyn vlammend oog, waarvoor Castilie beefde 

Nog vol ontroering staart op wreede folteringen 

En of de fiere held, die steeds naar vryheid streefde, 

De lage beulen wil in yz'ren kluisters wringen. 

't Is of zyn mond nog vloekt de snoode Castilianen 

En van het leed verhaalt, door hen alom verwekt. 

Columbia ! besproeid met zooveel bloed en tranen, 

Vereeuwig thans Brion, zyn roem is onbevlekt ; 

Begroet den eed'len held, die uit Uw schoone staten 

Den vyand heeft verjaagd, zyn legers heeft verslagen ; 

Vergood, bemin den held, die niet heeft toegelaten, 

Dat gy, als slaaf, verguisd, het Spaansche juk zoudt dragen ; 

Bezing den fieren leeuw, die aan Uw oosterstranden 

De Spaansche vloot verwon, verbrand heeft en vernield ; 

Bazuin zyn deugden rond, verhaal aan alle landen, 

Dat gy, Columbia ! weent by zyn graf geknield. 

— J. H. B. Gravenhorst. 

Lines, 

To the Memory of Admiral Louis Brion, on the Occasion of the Removal of his 
Remains, Interred at Curacao, September 17th, 1881. By the Hon. f. H. B. 
Gravenhorst. Printed in Wilhelmstadt, Curacao. 

No longer here detained, no longer here to rest, 

Forgotten, unknown, by no one here deplored, 

They call thee up, Brion ! and everywhere on yonder coast, 

They ask for thy dear dust, thy buried form ; 

Thou now, at last art thanked, anew art wept. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 57" 

Columbia ! thy Liberator, Brion, thou wilt honor ; 

J T is he, or his sad shade, me by his tomb doth hold, 

To me doth speak of tears, of blood and tyrants, 

Of Venezuela's folk, in chains once stricken, 

By crime, despair, pains intolerable, plagues, 

By cruelties unknowable, thirst for gold and blood ; 

'T is he, or his flaming eye, 'fore which Castilia trembled, 

Still full of terror, just fruit of persecutions dire, 

As if the fiery hero whoe'er for freedom strove, 

Might yet the base hangmen in iron fetters wring ; 

'T is he, or his voice, that curseth still Spain's sordid sons, 

And of the suffering telleth, through the universe resounded. 

Columbia ! besmeared with blood and tears, 

Now immortalize thy Brion— unspotted glory his ! 

Salute thy noble champion, who from your beauteous States 

The foe hath driven, his legions smitten ; 

Repay with love the man heroic, who ne'er could brook 

That thou enslaved, deceived, should wear Castilian yoke : 

And laud the lion bold, who on yon eastern strands, 

Vanquished Hispania's fleet, burned and destroyed ; 

Trumpet his virtues, to every land proclaim 

That thou, Columbia, kneeling, dost with tears his grave bedew. 

Slavery previously existed in Curacao, but was done away 
with July 1, 1863, about the time the shackles fell off from our 
own four millions of bondmen and women. 

The Holland Government paid to the owners eighty dollars 
each for every slave emancipated, which was satisfactory to all 
concerned, and now the blacks work for from twelve cents a 
day in the salt vats, to twenty or thirty cents a day in other 
employments requiring physical strength but no particular 
amount of brains. A master-carpenter or mason receives 
sixty cents a day, while the journeyman jogs along happily 
through this mundame sphere entirely satisfied with the 
pecuniary recompense of forty cents per diem for his labor. 

A diligent inquiry could discover no Knights of Labor 
organization on the island, and "strikes" are unknown. 
Whether a different state of affairs, such as the K. of L. 
organization would inaugurate, would improve the present 



58 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

condition of these 20,000 negroes, is a question that I leave 
open to those who care to ponder upon it. Tf they could be 
weaned from guzzling gin, and other injurious and unnatural 
beverages, it would probably be of greater benefit to them 
than an increase of wages ; for with them more money means 
more gin. 

A Neglected Opportunity. 

One evening, at the hospitable residence of ex-Governor 
Gravenhorst, his son said to me, while we were sipping our tea 
in the moonlight on the broad stone piazza, " Mr. H., the 
house that I am with here import the very best quality of 
Holland gin, and if you want a few bottles to take home with 
you,- 1 can let you have them at our wholesale prices." Cow- 
ard that I was, I assumed a grateful look, and, thanking him 
warmly, said that, perhaps before I left Curacao I would avail 
myself of his kind offer! What 1 ought to have said would 
have been about as follows : " Thank you, Mr. Gravenhorst, I 
never drink gin, or any other beverage of an intoxicating 
nature. I am opposed to it on principle, believing it to be the 
greatest as well as the most insidious enemy of mankind. In 
my own country we are endeavoring to put a stop to the liquor 
traffic by legislation, and at our last election I voted the entire 
Prohibition ticket with the exception of the Republican con- 
gressional candidate, who is my banker and personal friend." 
But " 'tis conscience makes cowards of us all," and I neglected 
this most favorable opportunity to implant my temperance 
sentiments in the breast of this young gentleman ! 

Ah, how universal is the infatuation in men to put " an 
enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains ! " Self- 
indulgence in the drinking habit, or some selfish interest, direct 
or indirect, in the liquor traffic, often leads travelers to report 
very favorably on the happy state of affairs that they found in 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 59 

this country, or that country, where the peasantry all drank 
their wine or beer with their wives and children, and were 
none the worse for it, either in body, mind or estate ! But it 
is all " bosh," and they know it. Every intelligent man who 
travels with his eyes open and his intellect unclouded to 
receive honest impressions, knows that there is not a country 
on the face of the globe, nor an island of the sea, where the 
use of intoxicating liquors is not the same blasting curse to 
the human race there, as it is in Massachusetts or Pennsylvania. 

" O, thou invisible spirit of wine, 

If thou hast no name to be known by, 
Let us call thee — devil ' " 

Fort Beckenberg, which I have just mentioned in connection 
with the biography of Admiral Brion, is situated on what is 
known as Caracas Bay, and was built by the Spaniards in 1527. 
It is now used for quarantine purposes, in connection with other 
spacious buildings which were erected in 1884 by the Dutch 
government at an expense of thirty-eight thousand dollars. 

All over the island are remains of forts and signal stations, 
interesting in their history, which remind one of the varying 
fortunes of war through which this island has passed. But I 
must hasten on, and before leaving the subject of Curacao, 
speak of my attendance at church in the ancient religious 
edifice built within the walls of Fort Amsterdam. In company 
with Captain Hess, Mr. H. T. Livingston, and Dr. Hutch- 
inson, I entered one of the scull-propelled ferry boats on 
Sunday morning at nine o'clock, and proceeded to attend 
church in accordance with the custom of my pious ancestry for 
many generations, We reached the church a half-hour before 
the time of service, and- were politely shown about the ancient 
building by a deacon who was an acquaintance of our cap- 
tain's. The first thing that attracted our attention on the 
outside was a cannon-ball, inserted apparently with great 



60 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

force in the wall of the church, just above the main entrance. 
This is a souvenir of the English who placed it there, nolens- 
volens, about an hundred years ago, and the agent that did the 
job was a brass cannon mounted on an eminence across the 
lagoon, about one mile back of Otrabanda. The English and 
Dutch were having a little trouble about that time, and the 
English vessels, not being able to enter the harbor, landed 
their guns through the surf on the sea-shore, and, planting a 
battery on a hill, bombarded the town of Wilhelmstadt and 
Fort Amsterdam to a capitulation. 

I forget the date of the erection of the church, but the 
imprint on the Bible in the pulpit is 1756, but that is probably 
a new affair in comparison to the church itself. The floor of 
the church is sanded to the depth of about an inch or so, and 
is as noiseless to the thickest boots as an Axminster carpet 
would be. The audience part of the church, exclusive of 
pulpit and organ-gallery, is about forty feet wide by fifty feet 
in length. Immediately opposite the pulpit is a high and 
rather pretentious private box for the governor. The center 
of the church is seated with ordinary wood-seat chairs, and. 
here the women sit and receive the full force of the discharge 
from the pulpit, while the men, the greater sinners, sit in 
pews around the sides of the room and only receive the scat- 
tering shot. This is wrong. Perhaps a guilty sense of extreme 
wickedness, and a consciousness of deserving a thorough over- 
hauling and denunciation from the minister, prompted me to 
take a seat among the chairs in the center of the church. I 
took Brother Livingston with me, but Brothers Hess and 
.Hutchinson took the regulation seats for sinful men in the 
pews. 

I noticed that the girls (all terribly homely creatures) tittered 
as we took our seats, and, divining the cause, I was not at all 
surprised, when, a few minutes afterward, a square-rigged old 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 6 I 

Dutch deacon came and politely requested us to change our 
seats from the chairs to the pews. At this the thirty-one 
homely girls (the entire female portion of the congregation) 
tittered again, and the occurrence seemed to keep them in 
good spirits all through the session. I congratulated myself 
upon being the cause of so much unalloyed happiness, and 
felt for once that my life had not been in vain. As for 
Brothers Hess and Hutchinson, the looks of mock solemnity 
and pity which they assumed in the hour of our humiliation 
was too exasperating for endurance, and I fear that my life 
may be too short for an opportunity to present itself wherein I 
can get even with them. 

The numbers of the hymns to be sung are painted in large 
:figures on square blocks and hung up on the four massive 
pillars which support the roof. The organ sounded pretty 
well and was vigorously played, with considerable squeaking 
of the keys and noise of the pump, but the singing was droned 
out in a most depressing manner. Everything was in Dutch, 
and Brother Livingston and I had to imagine the sentiment 
• contained in the hymns that were sung. Perhaps what 
impressed me most in this part of the service was the fervor 
with which Captain Hess entered into it. He held his hymn- 
book in both hands, up high, and, as he soared away with 
•closed eyes, in a sort of holy ecstacy — on the wrong note — I 
felt more drawn to him than ever from the similarity of our 
natures and education, both being very much inclined to 
religion, and, also, to vocal music, and knowing dreadful little 
.about either! The sermon was in two acts. After preaching 
about half an hour, the good man stopped and gave out a 
hymn, and I thought what a thoroughly sensible man he was 
to preach such a short sermon — not too short, you know, but 
just short enough. JBut lo ! and behold, after the hymn was 
.finished he began .to preach again! His text, I had ascer- 



62 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

tained, was from the chapter that he had read at the com- 
mencement of the service — Matthew 25th — containing the 
parable of the talents, but which verse it was I could not 
exactly determine. But my accusing conscience supplied it, 
and I felt sure it must be the one beginning, " Thou wicked 
and slothful servant," and, as he looked directly at me, it 
seemed that he said, in substance, "And thou miserable sinner 
from Pennsylvania, what hast ///<??/ done with the talent which 
thy Lord has given thee?" and then he proceeded to rehearse 
to me my unprofitable life, and, as I winced and trembled 
under his just denunciations, he gave me a closing home thrust 
with the question, "Didst thou not promise thy best earthly 
friend to read a chapter every day from the little red testa- 
ment that was put in thy satchel, and how hast thou kept that 
promise? " I dared not look up. I felt sure that the eyes of 
Hess and Hutchinson were upon me, and that they were 
saying to themselves, "Ah, now he's catching it," and that the 
thirty-one homely girls, in their dowdy white dresses and straw 
hats trimmed with blue ribbons, were gloating over my misery. 
Never before did I perspire so much as I did under that sermon 
in Dutch, and I shall long remember, if not profit by, the dis- 
course of the Rev. Dr. Tyderman of Curacao. Judging from 
the audience assembled at this service, being thirty-one females 
and eleven males, I conclude that religion in this island is at 
rather a low ebb. But here, as elsewhere, it holds true that 
the women worshipers far outnumber those of the sterner sex. 
The next morning at five o'clock, young Mr. Arthur B. 
Smith, son of the American consul, met me by appointment, 
with a small boat rowed by a negro, and together we made an 
excursion up a lagoon called " Zackato," the entrance to which 
is just by Fort Rif at the mouth of the harbor. Along this 
lagoon are located the general hospital, the marine hospital, 
the mad-house and the lazaretto. On an eminence about 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 63 

two miles away we could plainly see an old square fort or 
earthworks, said to have been built in a single night by the 
English, in the year 1804, when they bombarded Fort Amster- 
dam and the town of Wilhelmstadt. For a mile or so, this 
lagoon is wide like a lake, and quite shallow, but afterward it 
is very narrow and leads winding along for about half a mile 
to where the old salt beds were made centuries ago by the 
Spaniards. The bushes along the narrow part of the lagoon 
held thousands of oysters which were clinging to them, and 
made a curious sight. The negroes sometimes eat them, but 
they are not very palatable. We saw numbers of large birds 
of various kinds, which did not seem to be much afraid of us, 
and I conclude that but little shooting is done here. On the 
high grounds were large flocks of goats, the raising of which 
for milk, and food, and hides, is carried on extensively in the 
island. 

At the old salt beds we landed, and walked a few hundred 
feet to the shore of the Caribbean Sea. The beach was a 
perfect mass of coral rocks, or rather fragments of coral, and I 
gathered a dozen or more beautiful specimens of both the 
white and pink coral. 

The Coral Grove. 

Deep in the wave is a Coral Grove, 

Where the purple mullet and gold-fish rove, 

Where the sea-flower spreads its leaves of blue, 

That never are wet with falling' dew, 

But in bright and changeful beauty shine, 

Far down in the green and glassy brine. 

The floor is of sand like the mountain drift, 
And the pearl shells spangle the flinty snow; 

From coral rocks the sea-plants lift 
Their boughs where the tides and billows flow; 

The water is calm and still below, 
For the winds and waves are absent there, 

And the sands are bright as the stars that glow 
In the motionless fields of upper air; 



,64 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

There with its waving blade of green, 
The sea-flag streams through the silent water, 

And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen 
To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter; 

There with a light and easy motion 
The fan-coral sweeps through the clear deep sea, 

And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean 
Are bending like corn on the upland lea: 

And life, in rare and beautiful forms, 
Is sporting amid those bowers of stone, 

And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms 
Has made the top of the wave his own; 

And when the ship from his fury flies, 
Where the myriad voices of ocean roar, 

When the wind-god frowns in the murky skies, 
And demons are waiting the wreck on shore, 

Then far below, in the peaceful sea, 
The purple mullet and gold-fish rove, 

Where the waters murmur tranquilly 
Through the bending twigs of the Coral Grove. 

— James Percival. 

The Caves of Curacao. 

There are many caves in this island ; but the most interest- 
iin°" is that of Hato, located in a small mountain one hundred 
and fifty feet high, on the estate " Hato," about three miles 
from the town, on the north coast of the island. Although the 
extent of it is not known, it is considered as one of the largest 
in the island, consisting of many extensive galleries and high 
arches of stone. The natural formation is sand and limestone. 
The name " Hato " was given to the estate by the Spaniards. 
The Caribbean Indians were the discoverers of this and other 
caves, which were by tradition inhabited by them. As there are 
no rivers nor brooks in the island, and the Indians having no 
iron utensils to dig wells, they occupied this estate and others, 
where they discovered springs to procure them sufficient water. 
On the estate Hato there is a spring of crystalline water flow- 
ing during the whole year from the cave mountain into the 



66 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

valley, where large reservoirs have been made to keep the 
water for agricultural and other purposes. This water has 
proved to be a kind of mineral water, and is of a very good 
taste, and said to possess medicinal qualities. As I needed no 
medicine, I but tasted of it, and waited for a good square drink 
till I returned to the town. 

On the estate San Pedro, in the same direction as Hato, but 
ten miles from the town, there is also a cave and a spring, but 
of less importance than the former. This is called the Cave of 
San Pedro. ■ 

Our engraving gives a faithful representation of one of the 
interior chambers of the Cave of Hato. I did not enter the 
cave, having been entirely satisfied with cave experience in an 
exhaustive walk of five miles through the " Cuevas de Bella- 
mar," in the island of Cuba, two years ago. I was perfectly 
willing to accept as tru ft all the marvelous tales of its interior 
magnificence, a id even the tradition that it was the place 
where all of Captain Kidd's treasures were buried, but respect- 
fully declined to enter its gloomy portals. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 6 J 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Spanish Main. 

"The sea! the sea! the open sea! 
The blue, the fresh, the ever free ! 
Without a mark, without a bound, 
It runneth the earth's wide region round ; 
It plays with the clouds ; it mocks the skies : 
Or like a cradled creature lies." 

AND now the time approached when we must bid farewell 
to the island of Curacao, and proceed on our voyage to 
Venezuela. Our invalids had improved wonderfully during 
our sojourn there. Miss N. had been able to take long walks 
and rides without fatigue, and Mr. Morrison had recovered 
his voice. That Curacao is a most interesting spot, with a 
climate near to perfection, was the unanimous verdict. We 
had found the citizens most hospitable, and the invitations we 
had received to dinners and to evening parties, were more 
numerous than we could possibly accept. We made our 
parting calls on many friends and they in turn came to the 
steamer to see us off. At six in the evening we steamed out 
of the harbor and were once more on the bosom of the beauti- 
ful sea — that historic sea, taking its name from the Carib 
Indians and also bearing the title of " The Spanish Main," 
a title that is surrounded by a halo of romance and adventure, 
in which brave mariners of all nations, as well as bloody pirates, 
are mingled. 

The night was calm and beautiful, and with one accord 
we gathered in a circle on deck, for a reunion and an evening 
of song. By this time we had formed strong suspicions that 



68 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

Mr. Morrison was a vocalist as well as a manipulator of the 
banjo, and Miss N. was delegated to inform him that his fellow- 
travelers believed that it was his duty to sing to us as a token 
of gratitude for the recovery of his voice. He acknowledged 
the force of the argument and gave us a fine sentimental song 
in gooc* style, but we were in a jolly mood and clam .red for 
something of a more lively and vivacious character, and then 
this was the song he sang, with banjo accompaniament : 

The Irish Christening at Tipperary. 

" 'Twas down in that place Tipperary, 
Where they're so airy and so contrary, 
They cut up the devil's figary, 

When they christened my beautiful boy. 
In the corner the piper sat winkin', 
And a blinkin', and a thinkin', 
And a naggin of punch he was drinkin', 

And wishing the parents great joy. 
When home from the church they came with 
Father Tom and big Micky Bannigan, 
Scores of as purty boys and girls 

As ever ye'd ax to see, when in flew the door 
And Hogan the tinker, and Lathering Lannigan 
Kicked up a row and wanted to know 
Why they weren't axed to the spree. 

And the baby set up such a squalling, 
And such a bawling and caterwauling, 
And the nurse on the mother was calling, « 

There was a time " mon um ga joy" ! 
The piper his chanter was droning, 
And a groaning, and a moaning, 
The ould woman set up the croaning 

When they christened sweet Danny the boy. 

" Th' aristocracy came to the party, 
There was McCarty, light and hearty, 
Wid Florence Bedalia Fogarty, 

(She says that's the French for her name), 
Dionasius Alphonso Mulroony, 
Oh, so loony and so spoony, 
Wid the charmin' Evangeline Mooney, 

Of society she was the crame. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 69 

Cora Terasa Maud McCann, 
Algernon Rouke and Lulu McCafferty, 
Reginald Marmaduke Maurice Megan, 

Clarence Ignatius McGuirk, 
Cornelius Horatio Flaherty's son, 
Adelaide Grace and Doctor O'Rafferty, 
Eva McLoughlin, Cora Muldoon, 

And Brigadier General Burke. 

They were dancing the Polka Mazurka, 
'Twas a worker, ne'er a shirker, 
The Varsoviana La Turker 

And the Polka row-dow was divine. 
They marched and then went into luncheon, 
Oh, such punchin' and such scrunchin', 
They were busy as bees at the munchin' 

'Wid coffee, tea, whisky and wine. 

' There was all sorts of tay— there was Schow-chong, 
And there was Ning-yong, and there was Ding-dong, 
Wid Oolong, and Toolong, and Boolong, 

And tay that was made in Japan. 
There was sweetmeats imported from Java, 
And from Guava, and from Havre, 
In the four-masted ship the Minarva, 

That came from beyant Hindoostan. 
Cowld ice creams and cream that was hot, 
Roman punch froze up in snowballs and sparagrass, 
•'Patte de foi gras," whatever that manes, 

Made out of goose livers and grease; 
Red-headed ducks wid salmon and peas, 
Bandy-legged frogs and Peruvian ostriches, 
Bottle-nosed pickerel, woodcock and snipe, 

And everything else that would plaze. 

After dinner of course we had spaking, 

There was handshaking, there was leave-taking, 

In the corner ould mothers match-making, 

Wid other such innocent sins. 
And we drank a good health to each other, 
Then to each brother, then to each mother, 
But the last toast I thought I would smother, 

When they hoped that the next would be twins ! ' 



;o 



THE SPANISH MAIN. 



His inimitable manner and excellent vocalism gave great 
delight, and for an encore he gave us another song, equally 
new and equally amusing. 

Then we began the " old " songs, and our college friends, 
Mr. A. and young Mr. L., gave us the " Romance of the Cape," 
which Mr. Morrison also knew, and accompanied with the 
banjo : 

"There came to the Cape a lady. in crape, 

Of whom you may not hear; 
They wrote her name in the visitors' book 

As a lady from Gardinier. 
And with her was seen a lady in green, 

Of whom you may hear more; 
Her husband was drown'd off Long Island Sound, 

So sea-green weeds she wore. 

' ' And when with a clang the dinner-bell rang, 

To the banquet hall they sped, 
They sat remote at the table-d'hote, 

While the boarders sat at the head. 
Oh, the boarders laughed as their wine they quaffed, 

Loud laughed each little child ; 
As they ate their chowder they laughed the louder, 

But these neither ate nor smiled. 

"And when ^neath the pines they baited their lines 

And fished in mute despair, 
The fisherman asked, as he shot through the blast, 

' Won't you give us a lock of your hair ? ' 
'My husband is dead,' the green lady said, 

' A drowned man is he; 
I would he would rise, with his pale blue eyes 

And speak one word to me.' 

"These words that she uttered were scarcely muttered, 

When her line grew heavy as lead, 
And up rose a creature whose every feature, 

Resembled her husband dead ! 
'Come hither,' said he, 'to the deep blue sea;' 

And he tugged so hard at her line, 
That he pulled her down, in her sea-green gown, 

While she sang ' Forever Thine ! ' 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. J\ 

"Then go, if you can, to the classic Cape Ann 

And stop at Hotel de Clare, 
And view, without fainting, a beautiful painting 

That hangs in the parlor there. 
This painting was made by the artist O'Quade, 

And on it two faces are seen — 
The man who was drowned off Long Island Sound, 

And his wife, the lady in green." 

Mr. Howe, our handsome young purser, was here persuaded 
to sing "The Light-house by the Sea" (that some of us had 
heard him humming to himself), and we all joined in the 
chorus. 

The Light-house by the Sea. 

" There's a light ! there's a light. 

And it shines far out at sea — 
'T is a beacon so bright 

From my true-love to me. 
There's a light ! there's a light \ 

In a light-house by the sea. 

"In a light-house by the sea, 
There's a sweet face waits for me; 

Whene'er I'm away 

She waits day by day 
For the white sails far over the foam; 

When storms rage high at night, • 

Her lamps are always bright ; 

She's the pride of my heart, 
So steer, my lads, for home. 

" Many a day since last I saw her face r 

And gazed in her eyes, 
Their loving truth to trace. 

We'll meet ne'er to part, 
For with her I'll remain. 

I am coming, yes, I'm coming 
To you, sweet lass, again. 

' ' When storms rage high at sea, 
Ye ho, my lads, ye ho ! 
She waits for me, 

Ye ho, my lads, ye ho ' 



2 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

In a light-house by the sea, 
A sweet face waits for me. 

Whene'er I'm away, 

She waits day by day 
For the white sails far over the foam. 

When storms rage high at night, 

Her lamps are always bright ; 

She's the pride of my heart, 
So steer, lads, steer for home." 

After this one of our number gave a recitation as follows 

" I stood on the steps of the Hoffman 

And gazed at the living tide, 
Of vehicles down the middle, 

And people up either side. 
And I saw a maid in her beauty, 

In a shawl of real cashmere, 
Step down from out of a carriage, 

While her robe got caught in the rear ! 

" Oh, the robe was of moire antique, 

A very expensive rag ; 
But a skirt peeped out beneath, 

And that was a coffee bag ! 
I knew it once held coffee, 

Though now 'twas another thing, 
For on it was "Fine old Java," 

Y, marked with store blacking ! 

" And as she gained the sidewalk, 
■ And the muslin again was furled, 
I thought how those outskirts and inskirts, 

Were like men's hearts in the world ! 
How many a Pharisee humbug, 

Plays a life-long game of brag, 
His words all silk and velvet, 
And his heart but a coffee bag ! 

"And I turned me into the Hoffman, 

For my heart was beginning to sink, 
And I told the tale to a comrade, 

And it "rung him in" for a drink! 
And as we imbibed the cocktails, 

I then and there confessed, 
When I thought how I liked the poison, 

That I was as bad as the rest ! " 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 73 

Then Miss N., being pressed to sing, gave us that beautiful 
serenade by Samuel Lover, found in " Handy Andy " : 

It is the chime the hour draws near, 

When you and I must sever, 
Alas, it may be many a year, 

And it may be forever ! 

You said my heart was cold and stern, 

You doubted love when strongest, 
In future years you'll live to learn, 

Proud hearts can love the longest. 

Oh, sometimes think when press'd to hear, 

When flippant tongues beset thee, 
That all must love thee when thou'rt near, 

But I can ne'er forget thee, 

The changeful sand doth only know, 

The shallow tide and latest ; 
The rocks have mark'd its highest flow, 

The deepest and the greatest. 

And deeper still the flood-marks grow, 

So since the hour I met thee, 
The more the tide of time doth flow, 

The less can I forget thee ! 

This tender love-song brought upon us a more quiet mood 
and we lapsed from gay to grave, and parted for the night 
with the sentiment of sweet hymns — hallowed by fond recol- 
lections of home and sanctuary — on our lips and in our hearts. 
One by one my fellow-travelers retired to their state-rooms, 
while I, in a reflective mood, still kept my seat on the deck 
and gazed on the moon, the stars and on the silvery sea. I 
was reminded of those lines of Tom Moore : 

See how beneath the moonbeam's smile 

Yon little billow heaves its breast ; 
It foams and sparkles for a while, . 

And, murmuring, then subsides to rest. 

So man, the sport of bliss and care, 

Rises on Time's eventful sea, 
And, having swell'd a moment there, 

Thus melts into eternity. 



74 



THE SPANISH MAIN. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Spanish Main. 

Hark, do you hear the sea? The murmuring surge, 
That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes ? 

— King Lear. 

THE Spanish Main " is, technically speaking, the main- 
land, or coast, of that part of South America skirting 
the Caribbean Sea from Honduras on the west, to the Gulf of 
Paria on the east, a distance, following the coast line, of about 
two thousand miles. It is said by lexicographers that this 
coast received the name of " The Spanish Main" from early 
English voyagers to the West Indies and colonists in those 
islands, they referring to it as the main-land discovered and 
possessed by the Spaniards long before. That this is the 
origin of the name, or that it only refers to the land or coast, 
is a mooted point, as many historians speak of " The Spanish 
Main " as that part of the Caribbean Sea, or indeed the whole 
of it, that washes the shores of what is now known as Central 
America, United States of Colombia, and Venezuela, and 
which was first sailed by Columbus, Americus Vespucius and 
other Spanish navigators and explorers. In this view it receives 
its name of " The Spanish Main," in the signification that the 
main is the ocean or sea. Many historical accounts, and 
romances without number, have been written about the pirates 
and buccaneers of " The Spanish Main," and these were the 
wild sea-rovers of the Caribbean Sea that plundered and burnt 
the rich Spanish galleons as they sailed from their South 
American possessions loaded with precious metals to enrich 
the sovereigns and grandees of Spain. 



THTRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 75 

While there is a decided distinction in the original significa- 
tion or meaning of the terms " buccaneers" and " pirates,'' there 
was but little difference in the manner in which these gentle- 
men of the quarter-deck conducted themselves while pursuing 
their adopted profession. 

We hear of a noted pirate named Morgan, who was a 
Welshman, and had his headquarters on the island of Jamaica. 
He flourished about the middle of the seventeenth century, 
and became such a terror to the merchant marine of England, 
and became so rich withal, that Charles Second, the " Merry 
Monarch " of England, knighted him and made him Lieuten- 
ant-Governor of the Island of Jamaica, where he lived to a 
good old age, and died full of honor, and, of course, in the 
consolations of religion. Some of his deeds, when he first 
became a freebooter, were so desperate as to seem the frenzy 
of a madman. Once with a small boat, manned only by thirty 
men, he captured the ship of the vice-admiral of the Spanish 
fleet ! In the darkness of the night they rowed with muffled 
oars to the side of the great ship. While doing so, Morgan 
himself was busy boring holes in the bottom of his boat, so 
that when the battle commenced his men would fight with 
greater desperation, knowing that the only means of escape or 
saving their own lives would be in defeating the Spaniards 
and possessing themselves of the ship. 

Cutlass in hand they climbed up the sides of the vessel, cut 
down the sentries before an alarm could be given, and, before 
the vice-admiral knew that an enemy was on board, Morgan 
was in his cabin holding a pistol to his head and demanding 
unconditional surrender! But Morgan finally commanded a 
fleet of fifteen small vessels, and a force of men numbering 
over one thousand, and with these he took cities on the main- 
land, and loaded his ships with the gold, and silver, and mer- 
chandise of which he plundered them. 



Jt THE SPANISH MAIN. 

Sometimes, when he had taken possession of a city, he 
demanded a sum as ransom that was so enormous that the 
citizens said that it could not be raised, but after a few of them 
were tortured most horribly, the ransom money was invariably 
produced. 

But to my mind the most interesting history connected with 
these beautiful seas, are the annals of the French buccaneers. 
They were originally a simple company of French settlers who 
established themselves on some of the smaller islands of the 
West Indies shortly after their discovery by the Spaniards, 
and supported themselves comfortably in the primitive occu- 
pation of hunting wild cattle, horses, buffalo and deer. After 
a time they turned their attention to commerce, and began to 
tan the hides of these animals for exportation, and which they 
sold to the Dutch trading vessels. They also cured the flesh 
and sold it to mariners and others. The original inhabitants 
of these islands were the Caribee Indians, and they, being can- 
nibals, were accustomed to cut their prisoners of war in pieces 
and cure their flesh upon a species of hurdle or wooden grate, 
called barbacoa, and then smoking them under open sheds 
called boucans. So, as these French settlers treated their beef 
and venison as the Caribees did their prisoners, they were 
called boucaitiers or buccaneers. But soon the greedy Span- 
iards, jealous of their happiness and prosperity, began to per- 
secute them and finally drove them away from their homes in 
these smaller islands. They took refuge in the island of San 
Domingo, then called Hispaniola, and for a long time pursued 
their vocation as herdsmen and hunters in the immense unex- 
plored interior of this great island, without their existence 
there being known to the Spaniards, who had settlements on 
the eastern side of the island, and who claimed the whole of 
San Domingo. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. JJ 

It was not until they had become very numerous, and had 
pushed their hunting-grounds up to their plantations and set- 
tlements, that the Spanish colonists learnt the existence and 
felt the power of the buccaneers. Then the Spaniards called 
to their aid troops from Spain and Cuba to expel the intruders 
from the island. For twenty years the struggle between the 
buccaneers and the Spanish troops was continued, and all the 
cunning and inhuman cruelty for which the Spanish nation is 
noted was brought to bear on these French boncaniers who, 
up to this time, were simple herdsmen and hunters. The 
Spaniards poisoned and otherwise destroyed their game, hop- 
ing thus to starve them out of the island. 

Shakespeare makes Shylock say to his Christian enemies, 
" The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go 
hard but I will better the instruction." 

So it was with these buccaneers ; driven to desperation by 
the persecutions and cruelties of the Spaniards, they united 
with certain English rovers, or fillibusters, as they were called 
by the Spaniards, and commenced a series of depredations on 
the vessels sailing under the Spanish flag, and were so success- 
ful that they soon became greatly feared. The villainy taught 
them by the Spanish they began to execute, and in their 
ferocity and cold-blooded cruelties they " bettered the 
instruction." 

This was in the latter part of the 17th century, when Charles 
II. was on the throne of Spain, Louis XIV. on the throne of 
France, and William III. on the throne of England. Each of 
these nations had great interests in these West India Islands. 
The buccaneers were led by brave and fearless men, and their 
success was so great against the Spaniards, and in maintaining 
their foothold on the island of San Domingo, that France 
hastened to recognize them, and appointed a governor to repre- 
sent France in the ownership of one-half of the island. And 



yS THE SPANISH MAIN. 

the king of France was not too honest to receive a tenth of 
the value of all the prizes taken by the buccaneers, which was 
regularly paid by them to the governor of their part of the 
island. As this is history, it can also be stated, without fear 
of contradiction,, that the governor appointed by Louis XIV. 
over French San Domingo was a famous buccaneer named 
"Ducasse"! One of the strongholds of the buccaneers 
was the island of Tortuga, situated on the north side of the 
island of Hayti (or Santo Domingo, as it was then called), about 
seven miles off from the main island. This island of Tortuga 
was forty miles in circumference, and was surrounded, except 
on the southern side, by a chain of rocks called " Coles de 
Fer," and which made it, practically, unapproachable, except 
on tjie side next the island of Hayti, which is called Tortuga 
Channel. "Tortuga" merely means "tortoise," or "turtle," 
and there are several other islands in these tropical seas by the 
same name. The one above alluded to is the one that the 
English recently threatened to take from Hayti unless certain 
old claims were settled. Here, in this almost impregnable 
island fortress, the buccaneers lived for many years, and were 
-never conquered. Peace was finally made with them by recog- 
nizing their rights and appointing their chieftains to lucrative 
.and honorable positions under the Spanish, French and Eng- 
lish governments in these West India Islands. Many of their 
descendants still live on the islands and are far from feeling 
ashamed of their noted ancestors. Among the names of these 
noted chiefs, whose fearless and bloody deeds .made them the 
terror of the seas, we find those of Montbars, Laurent, and 
John Hepburn; the first a Scotchman of good family; the 
second a Frenchman of royal birth — said to have been the son 
of the Man with the Iron Mask and nephew to Louis XIV. — 
.and the third an Englishman who bought a large tract of land 
ijn Santo Domingo, but who made his land operations second- 



THIRTY DAYS 'ON THE CARIBBEAN. Jq 

ary to his more profitable ventures on the sea in plundering 
Spanish galleons. 

The romances of the Spanish Main also tell of a certain 
■" Nativa del Roco," a beautiful girl, granddaughter of Hep- 
burn, the Englishman, born on the island of Tortuga, and 
almost worshiped by the buccaneers as their good angel, and 
who often accompanied them in their desperate encounters, 
and who seemed to have borne a charmed life — a sort of a 
Mascot on shipboard, as it were. But this may have been 
only a creation of the romancer's brain, and it is hardly worth 
while to speculate upon or investigate the truth or falsity of 
the story. There is enough in the veritable history of these 
buccaneers of the Spanish Main to fully satisfy the cravings of 
.all lovers of the horrible, or to arouse in the minds of all 
humanitarians a sense of gratitude that a better era has 
.dawned upon the world, and that no longer do men commit 
these dreadful and wholesale murders on the ocean — that we 
may sail upon these beautiful seas having no dangers to con- 
tend with but those of the elements, thanking God that the 
•days of pirates and buccaneers have passed away forever! 




GUZMAN BLANCO, PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 8 1 



CHAPTER IX. 

Venezuela. 

AT daylight I was aroused by Mr. Wilkinson, who informed 
me that the mountains of Venezuela were in sight. 
There they were in their majesty, rising four to five thousand 
feet right out of the Caribbean Sea! Venezuela is pronounced 
in the Spanish in four syllables instead of five, viz., " Ven-ez- 
wee-la," with the accent on the third syllable. Some of the 
islands on the eastern coast were discovered by Columbus in 
1498, and the whole coast was explored the following year by 
Francis de Ojeda and Americus Vespucci. The name Ven- 
ezuela means " Little Venice," and was given to it by these 
two last-named Spanish navigators, who found in Lake Mara- 
caibo a number of Indian villages, built on piles on the borders 
of the lake, which so reminded them of Venice that they 
named that portion of the country Venezuela, or Little Venice, 
and subsequently the whole country was called Venezuela. It 
comprises an area of 439,120 square miles, being about as large 
as our two largest states, Texas and California, combined. It 
has, at present, a total population of a little over two millions 
of inhabitants. It is very mountainous, and some parts of it 
are yet unexplored, but are known to be inhabited by bar- 
barous races of Indians. Some of the mountain peaks reach 
an altitude of 15,000 feet, but they generally range from 3,000 
to 9,000 feet in height. Back of the coast ranges, and along 
the great river Orinoco, are immense grassy plains, or prairies, 

where vast herds of horned cattle, horses and mules roam in a 
G 



82 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

wild state, and are hunted for their hides and hair, which 
articles form quite an important item in the list of exports of 
Venezuela. 

The climate varies with the elevation. In the low regions, 
not rising above 2,000 feet from the sea, it is very hot. At an 
elevation of from 2,000 to 7,000 feet, the climate is delightful 
and healthy. But where the country rises above 7,000 feet, it 
generally becomes uninhabitable because of the perpetual 
mists which hang over these regions, and the terrible hail and 
snow-storms which visit them. 

Like other tropical countries, it has but two seasons, the wet 
and the dry. The dry season is called summer, and usually 
extends from about the middle of November to the middle of 
April, while the rainy season, or winter, fills up the balance of 
the year. It is a very fertile country, and is certainly well 
watered, for, besides the great river Orinoco, with its course 
of 1,500 miles, and 400 navigable tributary streams, there are 
230 rivers that flow into the Caribbean Sea and the gulfs of 
Venezuela and Paria, and several hundred other lesser streams 
flowing into Maracaibo and other lakes. 

Some of the products of Venezuela, in its vegetable king- 
dom, are, coffee, cocoa, cotton, indigo, tobacco, cacao (or 
chocolate), sugar-cane, plantains, maize, wheat, and a great 
variety of tropical fruits. Only an exceedingly small portion 
of the whole area of Venezuela is cultivated, yet the export 
trade in the products mentioned, especially coffee and cacao, 
is quite large and rapidly increasing. It is estimated that 
350,000 acres are devoted to the cultivation of the coffee shrub, 
and 55,000 acres to the cacao, or chocolate tree. 

The exceeding fertility of the soil will always be one of the 
great and lasting sources of wealth in the country. The 
mineral wealth of Venezuela is also very great, but its immense 
primeval forests, opulent with their varieties of rare and valu- 




SCENE IN VENEZUELA. THE FERN-PALM. 



'84 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

able woods, are more interesting to the traveler than the mines 
or the plantations. Here are found mahogany, satin-wood, 
ebony, rosewood, caoutchouc, or India-rubber tree, as well as 
many very valuable dye-woods, gum-trees, and medicinal 
plants. Here, also, is the celebrated czuc/i07ia-tree, the bark of 
which is so well known under the name of Peruvian bark. 
This valuable medicinal bark was used by the Peruvian Indians 
centuries ago, and was introduced to medical science through- 
out the world through the agency of the Countess Cinchon, in 
the 17th century. She was the wife of the Viceroy of Peru, 
and having, by its use, been cured of an intermittent fever, on 
her return to Spain she gave its virtues wide notoriety, and 
assisted largely in extending the knowledge of the curative 
properties of this wonderful product of South America. Since 
that time the tree has been known as the " Cinchona," and its 
.native name has been lost sight of. 

The region below the level of 3,000 feet is the country of 
the palms — the sago palm, the chiquichique ; and the yagua, 
whose fibrous tufts are converted into cordage, while the 
yagua also yields an excellent oil. Then there are the giant 
royal palm, the wax palm, the fan palm and the cocoanut 
palm, from which cocoanut oil is manufactured, and several 
other varieties of palms. But these great forests are rich, also, 
in the animal kingdom. Any number of circuses could be well 
stocked with " rare and wonderful animals," from the forest of 
Venezuela, " each one of which alone would be worth the price 
of admission." The jaguar, panther, tiger, tapir, black bear, 
peccary, badger, and fifteen varieties of monkeys constantly on 
hand. Also, a very fine line of sloths, armadillos, and several 
varieties of ant-eaters, while in serpents, a varied assortment 
of boa-constrictors, varying in length from fifteen to fifty feet 
( to suit customers), the cayman, the iguana, the basilisk and 
chameleon can always' be found in the forests of the mountains 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 85 

or the swamps of the lowlands. The truga venados, or deer 
swallower, is an interesting reptile for a pet, while fifteen other 
varieties of large snakes — most of which are venomous — 
immense spiders, bats and centipedes, help to form this happy 
family inhabiting the wilds of Venezuela. 

A few words relating to the history of Venezuela and its 
present government can scarcely be avoided in giving an 
account of a visit to its capital and some of its sea-ports. And 
yet, how difficult it is to epitomize a history so remarkable and 
varied as hers. As I reflect upon the struggles of these South 
American nations to free themselves from the Spanish yoke,. 
after having visited the scenes of many of their battles with, 
their relentless enemies, and having seen the beautiful and 
costly monuments erected to the memory of their patriotic 
dead, I am filled with admiration for their patriotism and 
valor, and accord to them much of the same noble spirit that 
animated our own forefathers in their long struggle to free 
themselves from a foreign yoke. The name of Bolivar, the 
liberator of Venezuela, is honored and venerated there as our 
own Washington is here. 

The "United States of Venezuela" is now a republic, and 
has been for the last fifteen to eighteen years, governed wisely 
by Guzman Blanco, who is still the president. July 5, 181 i r 
was the time that Venezuela proclaimed its independence, and 
the day is still celebrated with great enthusiasm every year, 
much in the same manner as we celebrate the 4th of July, the 
birthday of our own nationality. But Spain did not give up 
this rich country without a protracted struggle, lasting until 
1823, when she reluctantly relinquished it. 

But to return to my ship, which is now rapidly approaching 
the harbor of Puerto Cabello. We had to lay-to off the harbor 
waiting till sunrise, so that in accordance with the regulations 
of all fortified harbors in Spanish countries we could then 




SCENE IN VENEZUELA. THE COCOA-PALM. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 87 

enter. I sat and watched the sun rise from out of the sea. 
What a glorious sight! The mountains have a purple hue. 
Some of the taller peaks were above the clouds. 

"Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day 
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops." 

Puerto Cabello lies in a half-moon or half-circle of the 
mountains. It is an excellent harbor, defended from storms by 
a long sandspit, and defended ( by courtesy only) from enemies 
by a venerable fort, valuable now only in memory of its past 
history, or as it serves as a prison for a score or two of miser- 
able offenders against the law or policy of the State. Puerto 
Cabello has a population of 10,000. It is nestled under the 
shadow of the great mountains and has the long narrow streets 
peculiar to all Spanish cities. The inhabitants are of all colors 
and all speak the Spanish language only. The climate is hot, 
and, at certain seasons, quite unhealthy. Being one of the 
best harbors on the coast, it is a place of considerable import- 
ance. The imports here amount to about five millions of 
dollars a year, while the exports are nearly double that sum. 
In company with Mr. Livingston and his son I took a carriage 
drive four or five miles back into the country to a pretty place 
called San Esteban, which is the country residence of six or 
eight German families who keep stores in Puerto Cabello. 
Our driver was black, and as he spoke no English, and as we 
haggled over but a few words of Spanish, the continuity of 
vocal communication from the inside to the outside seat was 
frequently broken, and soon, by mutual consent, born of 
necessity, was abandoned altogether. But our colored brother, 
though speechless, was politely mindful of our being "strangers 
within his gates," and frequently stopped to point out a fine 
mountain view, or to cull a tropical flower or plant, which he 
presented to us with an easy grace, as if to say, "Speech is 
silver, silence is golden, and I can only speak to you in the 



88 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

language of flowers." But he didn't forget to exact four 
dollars for the two hours' ride, all the same ! 

Along the road-side we saw occasionally a small pile of 
stones and a rude wooden cross stuck up beside it. These 
marked the graves of some poor fellows who had met violent 
deaths and were buried where they were killed. A Venezuelan 
on our steamer, who imbibed a good deal from divers bottles 
which he had in his state-room, told us how that he was travel- 
ing on horseback with a friend one day in Venezuela, and 
that they had but one bottle of brandy between them. Now, 
if his friend had the same amiable weakness for drinking as 
the narrator of the story had, this one bottle of brandy must 
have assumed the same discouraging outlook to them as did 
the cruse of oil to the widow when another individual pro- 
posed to share it with her. However, as the distance they had 
to travel was over ten miles, they agreed that they would only 
take a drink when they came to one of these wayside crosses. 
For a time all went well, the crosses were frequent, and so 
were the drinks ; but after a time they seemed to have struck 
a very peaceful piece of road — not a cross was to be seen ! 
Things were getting serious, till suddenly one of these " two 
souls with but a single thought," leaped from his horse, spread 
out his arms in the shape of a cross and said, in effect, and in 
Spanish, " Eureka ! Let's take a drink!" How can I doubt 
the story when I have seen the crosses? 

Returning to the harbor we found that two small vessels 
had just come from " Los Roccas," a number of dangerous 
reefs and sand-islands about seventy-five miles north of the 
main-land, and were loaded with " booby " eggs and turtles. 
The " booby" is a bird similar to the sea-gull, and its eggs are 
gathered at Los Roccas in great quantities, and sold at the 
sea-port towns for food. One of the vessels had twenty thou- 
sand, and the other twelve thousand of these eggs. The 



•90 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

native colored women had already bought many, and had 
boiled them hard and were carrying around on their heads 
trays full of them to sell. I bought one, and in regular pic- 
nic style, picked off the shell, and, having seasoned it with a 
pinch of salt and pepper mixed, bit into it rather gingerly at 
first, but finding it of excellent flavor, I finished it and another 
one with a good deal of gusto. These eggs are just the size of 
our common hen's eggs, and sell for eighty cents per hundred. 

The forty-one turtles which formed part of the cargo of 
these little vessels, were transferred to our steamer, and we 
carried them to New York. They varied in weight from fifty 
to two hundred pounds each, and as they lay helplessly on 
their backs on the main deck of our vessel, they were kept 
alive by being thoroughly drenched with sea-water every few 
hours during the passage to New York. 

Our steamer was being unloaded of a portion of her cargo 
of general merchandise by a large gang of half-naked negroes, 
and the little mules were drawing it away from the dock in 
big-wheeled carts. Each of these little animals has to draw 
nine barrels of flour at a load, which seems almost impossible 
when you reflect that he is himself almost small enough to be 
thrust into an empty barrel. Water is also carried on the 
backs of these wonderfully strong, tireless and sure-footed 
beasts. Two full-sized barrels, full of water, are hung over his 
back — one on each side — and with them he will walk along, 
the patient slave of his master or driver. It is a queer sight 
to see a line of these " burros," as they are called, coming in 
from the country Indian file, loaded with bags of coffee. There 
are but one hundred and fourteen miles of railroad in all 
Venezuela, and the carrying of the greater portion of all the 
products of the country to the cities and to the sea-ports, is 
done by these sturdy little animals. In the eternal fitness of 
things, mules were certainly created expressly for use in moun- 
tainous countries. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 9 1 

While our steamer was being unloaded of merchandise, and 
again loaded, partly with coffee, hides, cocoa, etc., we had 
abundant time to stroll around the town and see the many 
sights curious to Northern eyes. The plaza is quite a preten- 
tious one, and though not well-shaded, seems to be well-cared 
for, and, with its plants and flowers, presented a pleasing 
appearance. There are public baths by the sea-shore inclosed 
with strong palings, like a poultry yard, as a protection from 
sharks. But the " Banos del Mar" of Puerto Cabello, like 
those I saw in Havana, seem to be neglected and but little 
used. Cleanliness is far from being one of the cardinal virtues 
of the inhabitants of these hot countries. The vultures seem 
to be the chief scavengers in and about the town, and in 
virtue of their office are exempt from serving as targets to 
sportsmen. The public market was well worth a visit. Here 
we saw all kinds of vegetables indigenous to the soil, a great 
variety of parrots, and troopials, and other bright-hued birds. 
We were importuned to buy monkeys, which our good angels 
protected us from doing. The tiger-skins were more seductive 
and less noisy, while the celebrated " casava " bread was the 
most attractive of all. It is made of the root called yuca 
mandioca, which, when grated, is put into a bag and the juice, 
which is poisonous, is pressed out ; after which the grated root 
is rolled out into thin round slices twenty-eight inches in 
diameter and about an eighth of an inch thick. After being 
dried in the sun it is ready to be eaten. I ate some of it and 
found it quite palatable. But I don't hanker after it. 

The market-house is quite large, being, I should judge, 150 
feet long by 50 or 60 feet wide. It was filled with a chattering 
crowd of people of all colors, and all speaking Spanish. They 
seemed good-natured and even jolly, and the women really 
seemed quite inclined to flirt, which filled me with alarm, and I 
urged upon my less timid companions the importance of hurry- 
ing back to our ark of safety, the steamer " Philadelphia." 



92 THE SPANISH MAIN. 



CHAPTER X. 

Canal A^ictims ! — La Guayra. 

A S we lay at the dock at Puerto Cabello, taking in our 
^ ** cargo of coffee, the French mail steamer " Ville de Mar- 
seilles," came in and dropped her anchor within one hundred 
feet and right abreast of us. She plies between Havre and 
Colon, touching at several of the West India Islands, and 
also at La Guayra and Porto Cabello on the Venezuelan coast- 
She is a large steamer, being three hundred and two feet long 
and thirty-seven feet beam. Her carrying capacity is two 
thousand tons, and she has accommodations for eighty-four 
cabin passengers and one hundred and fifty second cabin and 
steerage. She had a large number of Frenchmen, and fifty or 
more "Jamaica niggers " all going to Colon as laborers on De 
Lessep's canal. Poor fellows, I pitied them, for I could look 
upon them in no other light than as " lambs led to the slaugh- 
ter." Ignorant of the deadly influences of the climate, and 
deluded by promises of high wages, they go in droves to 
labor on the great ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama. 
They go, but few, if any, ever return ! Exposure to the deadly 
miasma of the night and terrible heat of the day, with insuffi- 
cient food and impure water, too ignorant to use precaution or 
to practice any healing methods, the fever makes them its easy 
victims, and they die off like sheep with the murrain, and are 
buried like dogs. A few of the more intelligent and cleanly of 
the laborers, especially Americans, survive to escape, and the 
tales they tell of the daily horrors witnessed on that canal, 



THIRTY DAYS OX THE CARIBBEAN. 93 

would be almost too incredible for belief, if not amply corrob- 
orated by many others who have been witnesses of the same 
dreadful state of affairs. And so, as I look at these honest 
French peasants and at these fat and laughing " Jamaica nig- 
gers" on this great French steamer, I repeat, " Poor fellows, 
they are like lambs led to the slaughter, they will lay their 
bones on the banks of the De Lessep's canal, and meet their 
death ' unwept, unhonored and unsung' ! " 

Leaving Puerto Cabello at nightfall, we steamed away for 
La Guayra, about seventy or eighty miles easterly, which place 
we reached the next morning. La Guayra is the sea-port of 
the City of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, which lies seven 
miles back from the sea, and over the coast range of moun- 
tains, on a lovely plain called the Valley of Caracas. La 
Guayra, unlike Puerto Cabello, has no harbor at all, and is 
entirely exposed to all northerly winds. The coast line is at 
almost all seasons of the year crested with foam from the 
breakers which go tumbling and roaring upon it. But there is 
good anchorage here, and vessels lie in safety except in times 
of storm, when they have to slip their cables and put to sea. 
As we came to anchor within about a half a mile from shore, 
the mountains towered above us to the height of nine thou- 
sand feet, and seemingly at an angle of forty-five degrees from 
the deck of our steamer. The mountains here are very steep 
and gloomy looking. There are on the face of them occasional 
patches of green that look as if they might be in a state of 
cultivation, but for the most part they seem to be densely 
wooded. The city, which has but about ten thousand inhab- 
itants, is irregularly built, partly in the valley by the side of 
the Caribbean Sea, and partly up the foot-hills of the moun- 
tain. The streets are exceedingly narrow, and where they 
lead up the foot-hills are very steep. There are but few good 
residences here, nine-tenths of the population seeming to be. 



94 



THE SPANISH MAIN. 



like the children of Gibbeon — hewers of wood and drawers of 
wa ter — and live in adobe huts or thatched cottages, with but 
very few of what we would call the common necessaries of life. 

Along the shore, extending the entire length of this strag- 
gling city, is a strong sea-wall, built to protect it from the long 
heavy swells sent in by the trade-winds. On an elevation to 
the right of the city, and overlooking the entire town and 
harbor — if the anchorage can be so called — is an ancient-look- 
ing fort built by the Spaniards in the old colonial days, as a 
protection against the buccaneers. A small garrison is kept 
there, and a slight show of the " pride, pomp and circumstance 
of glorious war " is still kept up, but it is simply ludicrous, and 
reminds one of the old soldier in Goldsmith's " Deserted Vil- 
lage," who " shouldered his crutch'and showed how fields were 
won." 

On an eminence to the left is another fort, a relic of the 
past, and still further up the mountain-side there is yet another 
really picturesque ruin of an old fort, which dates back to the 
sixteenth century. I am glad to say, however, that Guzman 
Blanco, the President of Venezuela, is taking care of these old 
forts, protecting them from further decay, and repairing some 
of the ravages that time has made. Whether he does this in a 
utilitarian sense, or merely to preserve the antique beauty of 
their architecture, and as memorials of those early days of 
Venezuelan history, I do not know. To the traveler whose 
mind dwells more on the "strange and eventful history" of 
these Spanish-speaking countries than on the present state of 
their affairs, the old Spanish fortresses, with their queer little 
Moorish watch-towers, have a fascination and attraction 
decidedly greater than any of their more recent structures. 

But to return to the so-called harbor of La Guayra — though 
all vessels have to be loaded and unloaded by lighters, there is 
more business done here than at all the other sea-ports of 



THIRTY DAYS OX THE CARIBBEAN. 95 

Venezuela combined. These lighters are built like whale- 
boats, only much heavier and larger. They are made of 
lignum-viteE and iron-wood, and cost twelve hundred dollars 
each. They are handled very skillfully by natives, and carry 
great loads back and forth from the vessels with perfect safety, 
landing them through the surf without wetting any of the 
goods. A smaller size of boats convey passengers to and from 
the shore. Sometimes the passengers have to be carried from 
the boats (after touching the beach), through the foam of the 
surf to the dry land, on the backs of the boatmen. But this 
was not the case while we were there, as the sea was compara- 
tively smooth. 

The morning we reached La Guayra there were anchored 
there two Venezuelan gun-boats, two English war steamers, 
and two English gun-boats, three barks, one full-rigged ship, 
three large schooners, and fourteen small coasting vessels from 
ten to seventy-five tons each. Before going to Caracas a 
Spanish war-steamer, an English mail-steamer, a Dutch mail- 
steamer and three large sailing vessels came to anchor near our 
steamer. 

The City of Caracas is but seven miles from La Guayra, 
"as the crow flies," but the nearest wagon-road to it is over 
twenty-four miles long. There is another route more nearly 
direct over the mountain, which, however, can only be traveled 
by mules and donkeys, and it was by this path in the old 
times that communication was had between the two cities. 
The wagon-road is of a much later date, having been con- 
structed when the growing importance and wealth of Caracas 
rendered it necessary for the easier transportation of heavy 
and bulky freights. 

But now the locomotive creeps up and around these solemn 
mountains, and darts across the yawning chasms in a sinuous 
trail, waking the echoes with its shrill scream, and disturbing 



g6 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

the slumbers or pleasures of the lions, and tigers, and boa- 
constrictors, of which these mountains are full. The Caracas 
and La Guayra Railroad is twenty-four miles long, and has 
fourteen bridges, eight tunnels and a fabulous number of 
curves. Indeed, it is said that one of the engineers who 
surveyed the line died of grief, because he could not put in 
one more curve. The road is narrow gauge and was built 
and is owned by an English company. The fare either way 
(first class), is two dollars and fifty cents ! The freight rate on 
a bag of coffee (130 lbs.), from Caracas to La Guayra, is one 
dollar! What is the Standard Oil Company or any other 
Yankee monopoly in comparison to that? But the English- 
men don't get it all by any manner of means. The " con- 
cession " which has to be obtained from the government 
before a railroad or similar work can be commenced, always 
■costs a very pretty penny in the first place, and a continual 
" divy " of profits forever afterwards. And this leads me to 
say that whatever of indolence may be charged to the Spanish 
character in these tropical countries, it draws the line at the 
collection of customs and taxes. In those departments of 
labor, nothing can exceed the industry of the government 
officials, except it may be the ingenuity which those individuals 
display in getting a share of it into their own pockets. Though 
no passports are required, yet you have to pay a custom-house 
fee when you enter and when you depart from the country. 

I had the pleasure of meeting at La Guayra, Mr. Winfield 
S. Bird, the American consul at that port. Mr. Bird has 
resided here for several years, is a fluent speaker of the 
Spanish tongue, and has become very familiar with all the 
characteristics of the natives of this interesting portion of 
America, as also with the resources of Venezuela and her 
adjoining republics. My acquaintance with him was of but 
two or three days' duration, during which time, however, he 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 97 

showed me every attention and contributed much to the 
pleasure of my stay there. At parting he handed me a 
document which he had written for me, which upon opening, 
I found to be two poems upon La Guayra. " No. 1 was 
written," he said, " for this latitude, and as he was partial to 
La Guayra, it expressed his sentiments, while No. 2 indi- 
cates pretty clearly the impressions and feelings of transient 
Americans who stay here only long enough to see the dark 
side of the picture." Only those that have visited these old 
Spanish cities can fully appreciate the humor of No. 2, and 
I did not stay at La Guayra long enough to become very 
much saturated with the enthusiasm which permeates No. I. 

I. La Guayra. 

1 >h, tranquil paraiso, nestled near the placid sea, 
La Guayra, mi querida, I must bid adieu to thee ! 
My boat is tossing in the surf, the twilight settles down, 
.4 si purs, mi despedida — adios, my dear old town. 

( >h, gorgeous, cloud-kissed mountains, that majestically rise 
Far up into the azure of the lovely tropic skies, 
Frown never, but forever with the smile of pity greet 
The home of mis recuerdos sweetly sleeping at your feet. 

Thou restless and resistless olas that, with ceaseless roar 
And sheets of white espuma, dash upon the roekv shore, 
Beat lightly and break brightly, with thy changeless melody, 
On the beautiful orillas of this haven by the sea. 

And thou, too, gentle mother earth, in moments of unrest, 
Trembling with hollow thunders that re-echo in thy breast, 
In pity spare La Guayra a recurrence of her woes — 
The death and desolation of the terremota throes. 

With fondest recollections and with heart sincere anil true, 

Guairenos queridisimos, receive my last adieu ! 

May (loci, con mano mua, ever graciously extend 

To you the favor you have shown to your departing friend. 

7 



gS THE SPANISH MAIN. 

II. La Guayra. 

Adios to thee, La Guayra ! city of the dark-eyed gente, 
Land of mucho calor and of dolce far tiiente, 
Home of the wailing donkey and the all-abounding flea, 
Manana, gracios d Dios ! I bid adieu to thee. 

Farewell, ye gloomy casas, mejor die ho prison cells, 
Ye narrow, crooked calles, reeking with assorted smells, 
Ye dirty little coffee shops and filthy pulperias, 
Stinking stables, dingy patios and fetid canerias. 

Where beggars ride on horseback like Spanish cavaliers, 
And vagabonds perambulate like jolly gamboliers, 
Where the lavanderas wash your ropa when they feel inclined, 
And hotel waiters strut around with shirt-tails out behind. 

Good-by, ye Latin greasers ! sn atento servidor, 

Que vaya bien, pues adios ! my boat is on the shore : 

Oh, dirty people, dirty houses, despicable spot, 
Departing, I salute you in your dirtiness and rot. 

Steaming and streaming with boiling perspiration, 
Seething and breathing with hurried respiration, 
La Guayra, adios siempre, tierra tan caliente, 
Infernal clime of vicious rum and vilest agitartiente. 

Notwithstanding the heat, the want of cleanliness, the lack 
of proper sewerage, and the degrading habits of a large 
proportion of its population, La Guayra is said to be a healthy 
city. It has played a prominent part in the history of the 
Spanish Main during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
having been more than once sacked by the pirates and buc- 
caneers. In 1 8 12 an earthquake reduced it to ruins, with the 
exception of its large and very substantial custom-house, 
which remained uninjured, except a huge crack across its 
massive door-sill, which souvenir of the dreadful visitor I 
viewed with interest. 

All kinds of tropical fruits are very abundant here and are 
perpetually growing and ripening, so that " fruit in season," 
would be an unnecessary item to enumerate on a hotel or 
restaurant bill of fare at La Guayra. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 99 

The railway, as I said, is twenty-four miles long, and this to 
reach a place just seven miles distant. In eighteen miles it 
reaches an altitude of a little over three thousand feet. At 
times we had magnificent views of the sea and of La Guayra 
at our very feet, but so far off that the great ships at anchor 
looked like little toy boats, and the hundreds of lighters could 
hardly be seen at all. Sometimes we went rushing along the 
edge of a gorge that made me feel qualmish to look down 
into, and although it took two hours to run that twenty-four 
miles, it seemed to me that we went at a devil-may-care rate, 
and I breathed much easier when we reached the lovely 
valley of Caracas, three thousand five hundred feet above the 
level of the sea, and had a view of the old Spanish city in 
the distance. 



t. of C. I 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 1QI 



CHAPTER XI. 

Caracas. 

AT the railway station at Caracas there were to be seen 
the usual crowd of hack-drivers and porters soliciting 
(in vorciferous Spanish) the pleasure of transporting passengers 
and their baggage to the hotels. Ignoring these and following 
the lead of Signor Rudloff, I walked a few steps and took a 
queer little street car which soon conveyed us through narrow 
streets, a mile or more, to the Hotel Saint Amand, which is 
pleasantly located on quite a wide street fronting the capitol 
and its handsome grounds. As my friend turned into a 
gloomy hallway and commenced to climb some dirty stairs, 
I supposed that he was merely calling at some business office 
before going to the hotel. But following on, "to take it all in," 
I was surprised to find that this gloomy old barracks was the 
" Hotel Saint Amand," the best hotel in the City of Caracas. 
To give a pen picture of the primitive customs that prevail 
in this old caravansary would tax my descriptive powers 
beyond their limits. The building was evidently originally 
erected for a dwelling, and its large apartments have been 
partitioned off into smaller ones, and the walls of separation 
are made of merely half-inch boards and papered ! The court- 
yard or patio, which is the characteristic of all dwellings in 
Spanish countries, is there ; but instead of being " a thing of 
beauty and a joy forever," is but a receptacle for all sorts of 
rubbish. The bed-rooms being all on the second floor and 
arranged around this open court, their unhappy occupants 



102 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

have the full benefit of a variety of odors which are anything 
but agreeable to sensitive nostrils. My German friend soon 
had apartments assigned to us by the somewhat ancient 
senorita who presided as clerk over this delectable retreat. 
After making our toilets, we were piloted to another house, 
through the grounds of the capitol, where we took our meals. 
This was the portion of the Saint Amand, with a few similar 
rooms, where the guests are fed, and in truth I must say that 
the food was good, well cooked, well served and in ample 
variety. In the morning, coffee or chocolate is served in your 
sleeping-room, or on the balcony overlooking the court-yard 
aforesaid, and breakfast cannot be had before eleven o'clock. 
The interval between early morning coffee and breakfast is 
the pleasantest part of the day to walk or ride about the city, 
except, perhaps, an hour or two late in the afternoon when 
the heat of the middle of the day has somewhat subsided. 

The foulness of the court-yard and back-yards, the utter 
lack of sanitary measures in all the necessary appurtenances 
of a hotel, and the abundant evidence of ignorance of all that 
pertains to cleanliness and health, led me to expect a nightly 
seance with bed-bugs, but in this I was agreeably disappointed. 
Nothing but the wicked and subtle flea disputed my claim 
to balmy sleep, tired nature's sweet restorer. But with a calm 
and serene spirit I successfully overcame his intrusive atten- 
tions sufficiently to obtain the necessary amount of sleep to 
knit up the ravelled sleeve of care, and emerge from my 
boudoir with a smiling face and refreshed body every morning. 

On the train from La Guayra I was introduced to the 
resident British minister at Caracas, Mr. St. John, pronounced, 
however, Sin John ("English, you know"), who was a fine- 
looking and very courteous gentleman. 

The Republic of Venezuela has lately had a serious mis- 
understanding with England regarding some boundary lines 



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104 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

near English Guiana, the tract of territory in dispute assuming 
recently great importance by the discovery of very rich gold 
mines upon it. England, as is averred, assumes to own it, 
occupies it, and, anchoring her armored ships of war in several 
of the Venezuelan ports, very coolly says to the little republic, 
" What are you going to do about it?" Under these circum- 
stances, President Guzman Blanco has given the British 
minister his papers, and diplomatic relations between the two 
countries have been severed. Mr. St. John has taken up his 
quarters on one of Her Majesty's war ships at La Guayra 
awaiting orders from his government, and his trip to Caracas 
was but to attend to some personal affairs. What the out- 
come will be, it is difficult to premise. President Blanco has 
offered to have the dispute arbitrated by the United States 
Government, which proposition was declined by England. 

Almost immediately upon our arrival at Caracas we en- 
countered a gentleman by the name of H. R. Hamilton, whose 
brogue determined his nationality, although an American by 
adoption, and whose pressing invitation to " go and have 
something," was proof that his residence of a few years in 
Caracas had not made him forget the custom that so unhappily 
prevails among so many of our countrymen. A drug store 
seemed the fashionable place for high-toned drinking in 
Caracas (as it often is here in the United States), and thither 
we proceeded. On our way we met .Major Charles L. Scott, 
U. S. A., minister to Venezuela, residing at Caracas. 

Mr. Hamilton, who is a prominent man in Caracas, and 
evidently occupies some confidential position " near the 
throne," immediately introduced us to our fellow-countryman. 
An introduction in every-day life at home is a very common 
and unimportant matter, and in many instances is a custom 
"more honored in the breach than in the observance," but in 
a foreign land, among strangers whose language is not under- 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 105 

stood, an influential introduction to a fellow-countryman is a 
very different affair, and assumes at once the complexion of a 
boon — a blessing — a pleasure that can only be appreciated by 
a traveler in such circumstances. Mr. Hamilton's thoughtful 
and courteous introduction to Major Scott produced a result, 
during our few days stay in the City of Caracas, which was all 
that a tourist's heart could wish, and will ever be remembered 
by me with feelings of the liveliest gratitude. 

Major Charles L. Scott is a Virginian by birth. He went 
to California in 1849, aR d afterwards represented that state 
in Congress during the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth sessions. 
When the war of the Rebellion broke out he " wore the grey," 
and was one of the fighting Southerners and not simply a 
politician. At the close of the war he resided in Alabama, 
and was appointed in 1885 by President Cleveland as United 
States Minister to Venezuela. He is a most affable and 
. courteous gentleman, of fine appearance, and about fifty-eight 
years of age. His kind attentions to American visitors to 
Caracas are acknowledged most heartily by all, and are referred 
to with enthusiasm by those who have had the pleasure of 
accepting the hospitality of his house. 

We were glad to learn that he is very popular here in 
Caracas, and is held in high esteem by President Guzman 
Blanco and his cabinet. Our land loses none of its brilliancy 
in the galaxy of nations when represented by such men as 
Major Scott, who, as I have already said, was one of the 
fighting and not intriguing rebels, and was one of the first to 
accept the situation manfully when defeat came, and now 
refers to it as "a blessing in disguise" to our great nation, 
binding all sections together more strongly than could have 
been possible before the black wall of slavery was broken 
down, and opening up vistas of material prosperity to the 
South that under the old regime could never have been 
dreamed of. 



I06 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

" Sweet are the uses of adversity, 
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." 

Under the guidance of Major Scott we visited all the points 
of interest in this truly beautiful city in the mountains of 
Venezuela. The numerous plazas, or parks, are well shaded 
with a variety of tropical trees (none so beautiful, however, as 
our own lovely maples) and ornamented with fine statuary. 
In one of the parks is a superb bronze statue of Guzman 
Blanco, with an inscription which I copied and which reads 
as follows : 

La Paz i la libertad el order Administrativo i el Progresso 

Intellectual i material, Debidos, 

Al General Guzman Blanco. 

Tanto Como La Dignidad de la Patria ante el Estranjero 

que el ha revivindicado son el Verridadero 

Pedestal De esta Estatua. 

In another park called the Plaza of Santa Teresa, is a 
bronze statue of our Washington, erected in the centennial 
year of Bolivar in 1883. The inscription on it says: 

Guzman Blanco, 

Illustrious American, 

President United States of Venezuela, 
Erected this Statue. 

Another very fine statue is an equestrian one in bronze of 
General Simon Bolivar, the great "Liberator" of these South 
American States. The Venezuelans celebrate the anniversary 
of his birth, the same as we do the twenty-second day of 
February, the birthday of our own Washington. 

A public garden called Calvario is on a hill a half mile or 
so from the city. It is the gift of President Guzman Blanco^ 
to the City of Caracas, and a place of wonderful beauty. 




BRONZE STATUE OF GENERAL BOLIVAR. 



jo8 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

Caracas, though up in the mountains three thousand five 
.hundred feet above the level of the Caribbean Sea, is yet in 
a lovely valley nine miles long by two miles wide, while 
towering above it on every side are the majestic mountains 
sending down their cool streams of water for the uses of the 
city. From this garden of Calvario a magnificent view of the 
city, the valley, and the panorama of mountains is obtained. 
Major Scott took us also through all the cathedrals, the public 
buildings, the gallery of paintings, and also to the Pantheon 
where are buried all the dead heroes of Venezuelan history. 

Mentioning to the president our presence in the city, 
General Guzman Blanco at once signified to Major Scott his 
desire to meet us, and appointed an hour for us to visit him 
at his palace. Presenting ourselves at the proper time, we 
were escorted through a line of colored soldiers on guard to 
a magnificent apartment in the palace. While waiting for the 
president to come in, I was informed by Major Scott that I 
had been selected by the party (four other Americans) to be 
the spokesman to address the illustrious president. I pro- 
tested, and pleaded my ignorance of any language but English 
(and but a meagre knowledge of that), but the president's 
secretary assured me, in well-expressed English, that he would 
interpret faithfully to General Blanco any remarks that I 
would be pleased to make. 

Forsaken by my friends, who showed no signs of relenting 
from their cruel sentence, and fearing that I would be shot by 
the guards if I attempted to run away, I submitted to my fate. 
Just as I had braced up a little and had framed a few well- 
rounded sentences to throw at the president, I caught sight of 
myself in one of the long mirrors which adorned the room. 
A tropical sun on board ship had played the deuce with my 
face, and Bardolph's nose, at the Boar's Head Tavern, when 
Falstaff called him the " knight of the burning lamp," was 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 109- 

not more fiery red than my whole countenance. I was about 
to make another masterly attempt at retreat, when the presi- 
dent was announced, and we were introduced individually 
by Major Scott. 

Guzman Blanco is sixty years of age, is about six feet and 
two inches tall, has been a very handsome man and still 
retains much of his good looks, although his hair and mous- 
tache are gray and lines of either age or anxiety are on his 
face and brow. Shaking our hands cordially he expressed his 
pleasure at meeting citizens of that country that he so greatly 
admired and whose beneficent forms of government he had 
tried to emulate. His knowledge of English is so slight that 
after a few words he relapsed into Spanish, which his secretary 
interpreted very gracefully to us. 

I then swallowed a huge lump that had grown and glued 
itself to my throat, and asked the secretary to please say to 
General Blanco that through the kind offices of Major Scott,, 
we had been shown the many public improvements in the 
City of Caracas, which had been made during the years that 
he had been at the head of the government ; that while all 
these had impressed us with the prosperity of his adminis- 
tration, we had been more profoundly impressed with the 
statements made to us by Major Scott and others, of the 
deep interest that the president had taken in the intellectual 
advancement of his people — that through his exertions over 
fifteen hundred free schools had been established in Venezuela 
where none had before existed — that monasteries and convents 
were turned into colleges, and an era of education for the 
masses had been successfully inaugurated, through which 
future generations would rise up and call him blessed. I was 
going on to say some more of the same sort, when a thought 
of my red nose and parboiled cheeks checked further utterance 
in that line of thought, and I concluded my remarks with an, 



HO THE SPANISH MAIN. 

expression of the pleasure we experienced in being honored 
by this reception. I thought the secretary elaborated my 
remarks somewhat in his interpretation to the president, for 
the illustrious American advanced and pressed my hand as he 
thanked me for my " kind words." At this juncture some 
light refreshments and wine and cigars were served, after 
which we took our leave of the President of the United 
States of Venezuela. 

That Guzman Blanco is a remarkable man goes without 
saying, but he has exhibited a combination of qualities rarely 
found in public men. He is not only a soldier, and a wonder- 
fully good one, but he is also a statesman, and a remarkably 
able one. Added to these, he has been a shrewd business 
man and by " thrift " has accumulated a princely fortune of 
fifteen millions of dollars. His friends say that he is honest, 
wise, and a benefactor of his race. His enemies say otherwise, 
but the. prima facie evidence is, that his several administrations 
have been characterized by great material improvements and 
intellectual advancement to his country and to his people. 
I prefer to accept this view of his character, as our friend 
Hamlet remarks, " Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, 
thou shalt not escape calumny." 



r i 2 THE SPANISH MAIN. 



CHAPTER XII. 

M A N A N A. 

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day 
To the last syllable of recorded time. 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death. — Macbeth. 

ONE of the words most in use in Venezuela, and indeed 
among all the Spanish -speaking people of tropical 
countries, is "Manama" — pronounced in their smooth and 
musical language, Mah-nyah-nah. It means " to-morrow," and 
as their habit of life is one of indolence, diametrically the 
opposite of that of our Northern people — which is one of 
thrift and industry — so their proverb is practically the reverse 
of ours, and instead of being " never put off till to-morrow 
what can be done to-day," is to the effect, " never do to-day 
what can be done to-morrow." The enervating climate is 
probably the first cause of this, and successive generations go 
on through life as their ancestors have before them. When 
asked to do anything that involves physical exertion, they 
ejaculate " Manana," and sit still ! 

" To-morrow " is their accepted time and the day of their 
salvation from the ills of poverty ; but that "to-morrow" never 
comes, so they remain poor and wretched, hugging to their 
bosoms that delusive "to-morrow" and wasting away the 
" to-day " which is the only time that mortal man can call his 
own. They can thus be truthfully called " the people of 
to-morrow," for this characteristic is observable in all classes 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. I 1 3 

of society, though doubtless it is more pronounced among the 
poor and ignorant. When the masses have become more 
intelligent, as the free schools begin to disperse the dense 
clouds of ignorance and superstition, Industry will be more 
honored and courted, while Indolence will droop her head 
in shame, and then will the " Mariana " be no longer the 
• fatal rock on which their lives are wrecked. 

And so I say again, all honor to the man who, though 
" native here and to the manner born," has risen superior to 
the bias of climate and national character, and founded 
hundreds of free schools and scores of universities and colleges 
for the education of his people. The name of Guzman Blanco 
will always hold a prominent place in South American history 
as a soldier and a statesman, but it will shine the brightest as 
he is viewed in the light of the educator and consequently the 
greatest benefactor of his people. 

Gloomy looking as prison walls are the exteriors of all the 
dwellings of Caracas, but after passing through the dismal 
portals, a few steps usher you into a delightful patio or court- 
yard, in which are growing in tropical luxuriance, trees and 
flowers, fruits and ferns, and in many instances a fountain of 
pure water mingles its soft murmurs with the songs of birds — 
making a miniature garden of Eden. Around this charming 
bower are the spacious apartments with their high ceilings, 
large windows, innocent of glass, but with heavy inside shutters 
to keep out the strong light and heat of mid-day. The chairs 
and lounges are of cane and the floors are usually bare or 
covered with matting. Upholstered furniture and carpets are 
but little used in Venezuela, though we found both, and of 
the richest description, in the palace of the president. 

A ride one Sunday afternoon, toward evening, discovered to 
us many very pretty female faces at the windows. Some of 
my more giddy companions were inclined to flirt with the fair 
8 



114 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

and jewelled sefioritas, who seemed not averse to exchanging 
smiles with the foreigners, which filled the young New Yorkers 
full of conceit. But I, remembering my Bardolph complexion, 
could not lay the flattering unction to my soul, and cynically 
reflecting that " beauty is purchased by the weight," and that 
"ornament is but the guiled shore to a most dangerous sea," 
with eyes severe I kept my heart in my pocket, and returned 
to my hotel unharmed by Cupid's darts. 

A letter of introduction to the firm of Boulton & Co., in 

Caracas, procured for me many polite attentions. In company 

with young Mr. Boulton of New York, who had been spending 

several months in Venezuela, I visited the coffee plantation of 

his uncle a few miles out of the city. The modus operandi of 

preparing the coffee for shipment was carefully explained to me. 

In brief it is about as follows : The coffee, when first picked 

in the pod, is put into a large stone vat to clean it ; then 

thrown into the hopper of the hulling machine ; the hulls drop 

in one place and the berry in another, which is a vat full of 

running water; here it is washed by stirring by the negroes to 

rid it of the glutinous matter attached to it. It is then 

shoveled out on the broad patio or yard, with floor of brick, 

to dry. Then it is shoveled into the " trillo " or " rollo," 

where the little skin or parchment which still adheres to it is 

taken off by a great wheel. Now it still has a certain amount 

of dust and skin clinging to it, so it must be put into a 

" blower," which not only thoroughly cleanses but also assorts 

it as to size. Then there is another machine — a Yankee 

invention — which takes the berries from the blower and sorts 

• out the flat beans from the round ones. The round beans are 

really no better than the flat ones, but command a higher 

price, which seemed to me a " little trick of the trade." After 

all this the coffee is picked over by hand, by women, to take 

out every defective bean. There were twenty or thirty negro 



THIRTY DAYS OX THE CARIBBEAN. 115 

women engaged in this occupation, and some of them looked 
as if they had been at it ever since Columbus discovered the 
country. 

On our return from San Bernardino, the name of Mr. Boul- 
ton's estate, we drove along the banks of a mountain stream 
in which were scores of women washing clothes. They beat 
them on the stones in a manner that must be highly destruc- 
tive to buttons, if not to the texture of the garments. With 
their skirts tucked up in a most thorough and extensive 
manner, these stalwart washerwomen, as they bent down to 
their labor, looked like a corps de ballet Jiors de combat. 
Such a display of female limbs would doubtless have shocked 
many people who witness the gyrations of a ballet troupe 
with perfect equanimity, and without a thought of anything 
immodest or improper in the performance. " Art " is one 
thing, "nature" is another! 

In the Casa Municipal, or City Hall, is a painting, the 
subject of which is the signing of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, fifth Julio, 181 1. Its size is twenty-two feet by 
twenty feet, and it is said to be a finer work of art than the 
one having a similar subject, so familiar to Americans, in the 
rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. It was painted by a 
French artist, M. Tovar y Tovar, at Paris in 1883. 

There are four daily papers published at Caracas. Being 
all printed in Spanish I derived but little comfort from them. 
I did, however, glean from one of them the sad news of the 
death of Henry Ward Beecher, which reached Caracas by the 
way of England and the Island of Trinidad ! It was read by 
me about two weeks after the death occurred. 

There are two clubs in Caracas, one of which, "Club Union," 
I visited and spent an enjoyable evening. I was introduced 
to a number of gentlemen there who, though native Vene- 
zuelans, addressed me in good English. I also met while in 



I 1 6 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

Caracas, Senor Olavarria, a distinguished citizen greatly 
respected by all, and who has recently been appointed by 
General Blanco as Minister to the United States. He 
impressed me as being a man of great ability, and as his 
particular mission to this country is to enlist the United States 
in a friendly effort to settle the serious disputes between 
Venezuela and England, I believe that he will present the 
subject to our government in a way that will lead it to take 
some action in the premises. 

There are but one hundred and fourteen miles of finished 
railways in all Venezuela, though there are in process of 
building perhaps one hundred and fifty miles more. It is a 
.most interesting country to visit, and not a bad country to 
live in. Its known, but as yet undeveloped, resources are 
■apparently boundless. There are no richer mines on the 
globe than in Venezuela. Its agricultural and other products 
give freights to many great ships, but few of which, alas, 
fly the American flag. 

The Messrs. Boulton with their fine steamers, the " Phila- 
delphia," the "Valencia" and the " Caracas," comprising the 
Red D Line, are doing a large business with this wonderfully 
productive country ; but aside from these, I did not see or hear 
of another American vessel doing business at any of the ports 
of Venezuela. On the other hand, English, French and 
Spanish steamers and ships, are to be found in every port 
on the coast. 




DEGENERATE REMAINS OF THE ONCE POWERFUL TRIBE 
OF CARIB INDIANS. VENEZUELA. 



Il8 THE SPANISH MAIN. 



CHAPTER XI. I I. 

Homeward Bound. 

THE days and evenings were so agreeably spent in 
Caracas that it was with extreme regret that, at the 
•end of a week, we were obliged to say adieu to the many 
kind people whose acquaintance we had made, and return to 
La Guayra to commence our homeward voyage. 

The climate of Caracas we had found delightful and lead us 
to applaud the wisdom of the old Spaniards, which induced 
them to build their beautiful cities on such heavenly heights. 
The people we had found both polite and generously hospi- 
table, and we flattered ourselves that the more cultivated 
classes have a little warmer feeling toward the citizens of 
the United States, than toward any other foreign visitors to 
their city. Certain it is we heard nothing but words of praise 
and friendship for our country, its citizens and its government. 
Germans are also much liked in Venezuela, but the same 
cannot be said — so far as our observation went — of the 
English. There is a deep feeling of resentment toward them 
for the encroachment of their government upon valuable 
territory claimed by Venezuela, and the breach will widen 
rapidly unless a reasonable compromise is soon effected. 

Soon after reaching La Guayra we again embarked on the 
steamer " Philadelphia," and the homeward voyage began. 
Our cargo consisted of twenty-five thousand bags of coffee, 
weighing one hundred and thirty pounds each, several thou- 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. I 19 

sand hides, large numbers of goat and deer skins, several 
hundred sacks of bones and divi-divi, besides bananas, salt 
fish, cocoa, etc. Our ship with its heavy cargo rides very 
steadily and all the passengers are in the best of spirits. Our 
invalids have become well and active, and we resume our 
amusements with renewed zest and thorough enjoyment. 

My intimacy with Mr. Morrison resulted in his imparting 
to me the fact that he was a minstrel by profession, and was 
the part proprietor of a well-known and fashionable minstrel 
troupe located in New York. He assumed the name of 
Morrison while on this voyage to avoid any unpleasant 
publicity, and his incognito was respected by me to the end 
of our voyage. 

And now, after six or seven days of delightful weather and 
smooth seas, we approach that fair land where the changing 
seasons are more beautiful than continual bloom and summer; 
where the maples are more lovely than the towering palms ; 
where' the women have the roses of health on their cheeks 
and the light of love and intelligence in their eyes, far 
excelling in their beauty all the dark-eyed senoritas of these 
Southern climes; where Peace reigns under a beneficent 
government of the people and for the people — or if grim- 
visaged War ever darkens that fair land, it is to preserve those 
grand institutions, founded on liberty and justice, which our 
forefathers established and bequeathed to us, and which are 
the ADMIRATION OF THE WORLD. 

It is as we approach our dear native land from a foreign 
shore, that our hearts burn with love for our matchless 
government. As we revolve in our mind all the blessings we 
enjoy so largely in excess of those of any other people, 
we cannot help singing from the heart: 



120 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

" My native country, thee, 
Land of the noble, free, 

Thy name I love ; 
I love thy rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and templed hills ; 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above." 

The old saying, "when March comes in like a lamb it will 
go out like a lion," was never better verified than it was on 
this voyage in March, 1887. The first day of the month in 
New York was bright and sunshiny with moderating weather, 
and on the second day, when we sailed for South America, 
the air was soft and balmy as in June. Even outside of 
Sandy Hook, with a fresh breeze, no overcoat was needed, 
and not till the twenty-eighth of the same month, on our 
homeward voyage, did I again don that garment so necessary 
in a Northern climate at this season of the year. 

On the twenty-eighth instant we caught the sun and took 
an observation, which showed us to be one hundred and 
seventy-three miles from New York. In less than an hour 
afterward a dense fog closed in about us, though the wind 
was strong from the southeast and a heavy sea was running. 
The fog-whistle was blown every three minutes as we steamed 
cautiously along. After two or three hours the fog lifted, and 
very suddenly the wind veered around to the westward and 
blew a gale. It also rained in torrents, which seemed to have 
the effect to beat down the waves somewhat. 

The rain continued till about eight o'clock P. M., when the 
wind shifted to the northeast, and a blinding snow-storm set in. 
It also grew very cold, and soon our rigging was coated with 
ice and our decks covered with both snow and ice. The wind 
howled and shrieked through the rigging like so many demons 



122 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

from the infernal regions. It was impossible to stand on the 
deck. If going forward toward the bow of the ship, you had 
to pull yourself along by anything that you could lay hold of, 
and if going aft, you had to hold back by the same agencies 
or be blown along the slippery decks in the most summary 
manner. A journey from the Social Hall to the wheel-house, 
meant hard work and a thorough drenching. I made it 
once, and was thereafter content to remain in the cabin or the 
Social Hall the rest of the night, although I did not go to 
sleep, but sat up to watch the progress of events. 

The weather continued like this till daylight, and all 
through that terrible night Captain Hess stood on the bridge, 
guiding, so far as lay in human power, the destiny of his 
ship. I know some of the anxieties that weigh upon a com- 
mander's mind ' during such a night as this, and as I saw 
Captain Hess come down from the bridge, shortly after day- 
light, with his hair and beard and eyebrows encased with ice, 
I knew that he felt relieved of a load of anxiety. Darkness 
.must greatly increase the perils of storm on the sea, for the 
danger of collision increases in snow-storm or fog, when no 
light can be seen a ship's length ahead. More especially is 
the danger of collision increased as any large port like that of 
New York is approached. But we were mercifully preserved 
from such disaster, and shortly after breakfast, when about 
forty miles from New York, we took on the pilot who had 
been waiting for us in his trim little schooner all through that 
stormy night. 

We reached our dock at about two o'clock P. M., and thus 
ended a voyage to the Spanish Main replete with rational, and 
I might even say rapturous, enjoyment from first to last. My 
reflections in looking back upon it after a lapse of several 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 123 

niDnths, lead me to wonder how people can resist the temp- 
tation to take these tropical voyages in the winter season. 
The transition from the keen icy blasts of the North to the 
warm and delicious air of the tropics, is so entrancing that 
even the memory of it long after is a delightful pleasure. 

I have spoken of the excellent accommodations of the 
steamer " Philadelphia," and the uniform courtesy of her officers, 
and I have been informed by frequent travelers by this line, 
that the steamers "Valencia" and "Caracas" of the same 
line are nearly, if not quite, equal in all their appointments and 
equally well officered. I am quite ready to believe this, for the 
gentlemen who are at the head of this long-established line of 
steamers, are men of great experience, knowing full well how 
to meet all the requirements of travelers by ocean, and sparing 
no pains or expense to make their steamers thoroughly com- 
fortable, and as safe as human agency can devise. 



I 24 THE SPANISH MAIN. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Story of Toussaint L'Ouverture. 

IN a retrospective glance at the history of the West India 
Islands and the other former possessions of Spain in North, 
Central, and South America, from their discovery in the latter 
part of the fifteenth century to the present time — when only 
the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico and Isle of Pines remain in 
her grasp — we see a long list of illustrious names, comprising 
eminent navigators, soldiers and statesmen. 

The central figure in this group of historic characters, is, 
of course, " Cristobal Colon," or, as he is known in American 
history, Christopher Columbus. His story is familiar to all 
as a household word, and need not be referred to here, but 
there are other great men who figured prominently in the 
history of these Spanish-American countries, whose exploits 
are not so familiar, and I have ventured to select two of them 
to be the subjects of short biographical sketches, which shall 
conclude this volume. 

The Story of Toussaint L'Ouverture. 

Hayti, the native name of this gem of the Antilles, signifies, 
in the Caribbean tongue, a land of high hills. Columbus 
called it, in admiration of its beauty, Hispaniola, or Little 
Spain. The French and English gave currency to its principal 
historical title St. Domingo, from its chief city. 

The Caribbean race, humanely treated by the great navi- 
gator, afterwards speedily vanished under the merciless rigors 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 125 

-of the gold mines. Then, in the greedy strife of France and 
Spain, the dark and melancholy era of African slavery opened 
upon those luxuriant shores. 

Next to Cuba, Hayti is one of the richest and most 
beautiful of the Greater Antilles, abounding in mineral 
resources of large variety, and favored with pleasing and 
serviceable diversities of climate. Its western portion, ceded 
by Spain to France in 1797, rose to so high a state of 
agricultural fertility as to have supplied Europe with half 
its consumed sugar. 

Amidst the luxuriance of these tropical scenes, the justly 
celebrated hero and patriot, Toussaint L'Ouverture, was born 
in 1743. Early in childhood so marked was his physical 
delicacy, that even the hope of his raising was despaired of. 
But, subsequently, he strengthened and hardened into a youth 
of exceptional vigor, agility and endurance. He could run, 
it is said, like an antelope ; and when mounted on the wildest 
and fleetest horse, he was a miniature Alexander. 

He is credibly stated to have been the grandson of a 
powerful and virtuous African monarch ; who, perhaps, trans- 
mitted to him not a few of the noble traits of character that 
his mature life displayed. As a slave, it was his great privilege 
to fall into the hands of an overseer, M. Bayon, of uncommon 
kindness; who, among other things, encouraged him to learn 
to read and write, acquirements that largely contributed to 
his ultimate power, as his tongue and pen proved no less 
serviceable to him than his sword. And most munificently 
did he repay the benefit. For when the great insurrection, 
1 791, burst upon the island, M. Bayon being on the point of 
falling into the hands of the infuriated negroes, the faithful 
Toussaint securely embarked him and his family on board a 
ship for America ; furnished, also, with many hogsheads of 
sugar for their immediate and prospective necessities. 



126 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

On a neighboring plantation there lived a virtuous black, 
Pierre Baptiste by name, who stood godfather to the little 
Toussaint at his baptism ; and who afterwards sedulously 
instructed him in religion, as well as taught him, to some 
extent, both French and Latin. And under such wise and 
humane culture, the young African grew up to manhood ; and 
when duly married and installed in his humble cabin, what 
could furnish a more pleasing image of his virtuous and con- 
tented life, than the description of it incidentally given by 
himself to a casual traveler? 

" We went," said he, " to labor in the fields, my wife and I, 
hand in hand. Scarcely were we conscious of the fatigues of 
the day. Heaven always blessed our toil. Not only had we 
abundance for ourselves, but we had the pleasure of giving 
food to blacks who needed it. On the Sabbath, and on 
festival days, we went to church, my wife, my parents, and 
myself. Returning to our cottage, after a pleasant meal, we 
passed the remainder of the day as a family, and we closed it 
by prayer, in which all took part." 

The immediate occasion of the great Insurrection of 
St. Domingo, was an appeal made to the slaves by the free 
mulattoes, who deemed themselves politically misused by the 
whites. This appeal fell like a burning coal in a magazine of 
powder, awaking the slaves, en masse, from their long torpor. 
And upon the night air of August 21, 1791, terrific indeed was 
the tocsin that sounded out, " Kill, burn and destroy" being 
the watchword that flew, with lightning speed, over the hills 
and through the valleys of the beautiful land. But in a drama 
so sanguinary, Toussaint would have neither hand nor voice. 
His soul revolted at acts so extreme; and he bravely stood 
personal guard over the shivering family of his benignant 
overseer. At the same time he was fully prepared to co-operate 
with his race, so soon as the project of their freedom could 
be reduced to humane and warrantable limits. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 1 27 

Having been a diligent reader of the works of the famous 
Abbe Raynal, Toussaint had imbibed from them fixed and 
intelligent principles on the great topic of human liberty. 
And particularly had he noticed the prediction of that eminent 
writer, that a vindicator of negro wrongs would ultimately 
arise out of the bosom of the negro race. But the ripeness of 
over fifty years was upon him, before he dared seriously to 
think of himself as possibly that vindicator. Leaders of no 
small worth and valor had preceded him — Biasson, Bouknant, 
Jean Francois, and the like. But in the admiration, con- 
fidence and trust of his dusky fellow-strugglers, he speedily 
outdistanced them all. He is described as possessed of a 
fine eye, rapid and penetrating in its glances; sober by rigid 
habit ; incessant and untiring in activity, and astute and 
judicious in all his plans and movements. In the military 
tactics of the island, neither Spain, France, nor England, ever 
long succeeded in outgeneraling him. And this credit is fully 
accorded him by French chroniclers, who, otherwise, were glad 
to detract from his merits. They speak of him as an excellent 
horseman, traveling with surprising rapidity from point to 
point. To the ignorant negroes he seemed as if superior to 
time and space. He and his swift-galloping horse appeared in 
their eyes as almost one compound being. As a general, he 
was the unrivalled idol of his troops, and even by observers of 
an higher social grade, he was not unfrequently likened to 
some great and noted captain of other lands and times. 

Long wearied by the clashing arms of Spain and France for 
the possession of his native island, he at length cast his lot 
unreservedly with France ; only, however, with the distinct 
understanding and proviso, that the enslavement of his people 
was to be forever a thing of the past. On this point he was 
inflexible. He carried on his heart the pregnant sentence of 
Abbe Raynal, "Liberty is everyone's oivn property." And from 



128 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

this he never swerved, though a most faithful servant of 
France, through all the changing phases of her government. 

The French commissioners he uniformly received with all 
■due respect ; but, at the same time, checkmated all their plots 
to re-establish the African servitude. 

The extraordinary abilities of this remarkable man, crossing 
the Atlantic, caused the French powers, in 1797, to commis- 
sion him general-in-chief of all the armies of St. Domingo. 
And this was subsequently confirmed by Napoleon, and con- 
tinued until Leclerc, the pampered husband of Pauline, Napo- 
leon's sister, appeared on the scene. This man was sent out, 
if possible, to seduce this colonial patriot; or, at all events, by 
some means, to capture him ; a mistake that eventually cost 
France the loss of the beautiful island, and gave there to 
Leclerc himself an inglorious grave. 

No one could allege that Toussaint's administration of the 
affairs of the island had not been most felicitous. Refugee 
planters to the United States came back, by his invitation, to 
their former homes, and were faithfully protected. Upon all 
employers of the negroes, he enjoined moderation in discipline, 
and liberality in food and sustenance. He sought, also, all 
reasonable means of reconciling these laborers to their lot, 
encouraging them to application and industry. He made laws 
against idleness and vagrancy, and enforced them with rigor. 
He fostered, also, education and religion. And so the long 
blood-stained and war-scarred island rapidly put on a smiling 
and happy face. 

At this juncture England, at war with France, dispatched 
thither assaulting fleets and armies. But these hostile 
attempts were all admirably met by the skillful and every- 
where-present Toussaint. His allegiance to France never 
faltered. This was so conspicuous that even the ill-natured 
Dubroca was constrained to testify of him, that "his conduct 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 1 29 

during the war with the English was brilliant, and without a 
stain." The first consul himself also wrote him, that " if the 
colors of the French people fly on St. Domingo, it is to you 
and your brave blacks that we owe it." 

But, in the midst of all this, Napoleon, loosed from his 
European wars by the peace of Amiens, suddenly dispatched 
an army of 20,000 men to re-establish in Hayti the hated 
human slavery. He sought to conceal his design. But all his 
duplicity, and that of his emissaries, failed to blind the eyes of 
Toussaint. He distinctly announced to them all that, while 
remaining loyal to France, he should also be true to the free- 
dom of his race, and that on this line the remaining battle of 
his life would be fought out. And there he stood, like a stag 
at bay, until the basest of treachery stole him from his family 
and his people, and shut him up in a foreign fortress to die. 
But, by a just Nemesis, the perfidious Leclerc must die too, 
for the " Yellow Jack" ere long clutched him, and interred his 
fetid bones in the soil of the land that he had so shamefully 
sought to enslave. 

Napoleon, it is said, could never forgive the innocently 
spoken words of Toussaint, duly reported to him, that " if 
Bonaparte is the first man in France, Toussaint is the first 
man in the Archipelago of the Antilles." Such an one the 
haughty Corsican could no longer endure. By some means, 
fair or foul, his downfall must be accomplished. From a 
project so unworthy, the French Minister Vincent has the 
solitary distinction of trying to dissuade his master, receiving 
only, in answer, the sentence of banishment to the island of 
Elba ; the identical spot, singularly enough, to which the lofty 
tyrant was himself subsequently banished. 

An artful letter addressed to Toussaint as " Citizen Gen- 
eral," in which Napoleon flatters him in high strains, con- 
cludes with this remarkable tribute: "And you, General, are 



I30 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

the first of your color that has reached such an height of 
power, and that has gained such distinction by bravery and 
military talent." 

But the sole aim of all this chicanery was to remove Tous- 
saint out of the path of his nefarious designs upon the liberty 
of the blacks. With this powerful chief on the island, the 
first consul saw no possible restoration of slavery. Hence the 
necessity of his removal. And the accomplishment of this 
base project was the chef-d'oeuvre of the knavish Leclerc. 
Decoyed, in the most deceitful manner, from the quiet and 
security of his home, on the pretext of a friendly interview, 
Toussaint suddenly found himself surrounded by a troop of 
armed men, and himself solitary. With the instinct of a 
soldier, he drew his sword ; but, upon a moment's reflection, 
he sheathed it again, with these tranquil, and also prophetic, 
words: "The justice of Heaven will avenge my cause" — 
amply afterwards fulfilled, if not elsewhere, at least on the 
rocky islet of St. Helena. 

Then quickly followed his transfer to a French frigate, his 
transit across the Atlantic, his imprisonment at Paris, and his 
final incarceration within the gloomy walls of the Joux, amid 
the deep recesses of the Jura Mountains. 

Against such perfidy and cruelty the poor captive pleaded 
in vain. The dampness of his dungeon, and his systematic 
starvation, rapidly wasted him away. All his most touching 
appeals to Paris were in vain. He might as well have spoken 
to the mute walls or mountains around him. His destiny was 
sealed. The supplies of food became more and more scanty ; 
all his wants were neglected, until at last, the fountain of his 
life utterly exhausted, the inhuman jailer found him, early in 
April, 1803, silent in death. 

The news of his death, in Hayti, was soon followed by des- 
perate uprisings of the people, and by the expulsion of the 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 131 

French. Also, intestine wars spread over the land. The fierce 
strife of races, colors, and different sections of the island, 
under great leaders like Dessalines, Christophe, Petiore, Boyer 
and others, is painful to reflect upon ; although it consoles us 
to think that, under the merciful guidance of a Supreme 
Power, they ultimately resulted in the final and permanent 
deliverance of Hayti from the thraldom of African slavery. 

Our hero, Toussaint, known in early life by his baptismal 
name of F/an^ois Dominique, has passed into history as Tous- 
saint L'Ouverture. Of the origin of this latter title, accounts 
somewhat vary. The most common of these is, that General 
Lareaux, noticing the facility with which Toussaint brushed 
aside difficulties in his path, said to certain around him, " Cet 
homme fait ouverture partout," meaning that he was capable 
of making an opening, or way, for himself and his cause 
under all circumstances. And from this incident " L'Ouver- 
ture," or the opening, became permanently attached to his 
name. The talented Lamartine inclined to " L'Aurora," the 
day-break, said to have been suggested by a monk, who thus 
distinguished Toussaint as the morning star of Haytien free- 
dom. Still a third account is that given by Lacroix, that 
Toussaint himself, independently, assumed the title, to signify 
thereby to his race and people that he felt assured that he 
could open to them the door of a better future, if they would 
follow him. And to this last we confess ourselves inclined to 
give in our adherence. 

As to the general character of this great man, no estimate 
of it could be just that failed to place it high. In his deter- 
mined revolt against the servitude of his race, he had all the 
fire and energy of Spartacus, with vastly more of self-restraint 
and humanity. As a patriot and liberator, he was one of whom 
Bolivar, himself, need not have been ashamed, while he had 
not a tithe of Bolivar's social advantages to lift him to his 



I32 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

eminence. In the untaught skill with which he foiled the 
trained hosts of Spain, France and England, he reminds us 
of Wallace and Bruce, or even of Alfred the Great. And we 
should not shame even the Roman Cincinnatus by naming 
them in company. Those who knew him best, scarcely set 
any bounds to their admiration of his works and worth. 

His pledged word of fidelity was so well recognized, that 
it was never questioned or distrusted. Of this a noticeable 
instance occurred in the case of the British General Maitland, 
who ventured to visit Toussaint at his camp in the mountains 
during the English war with France. The French commis- 
sioner, Roume, snatching at so rare an opportunity, wrote a 
hasty letter to Toussaint to capture General Maitland. Soon 
after Maitland reached the camp Toussaint came in, and 
handed him two letters, saying, " There, General, read these, 
before we talk together. The one is a letter just received 
from RoUme and the other my answer. I would not come to 
you till I had written my answer to him, that you may see 
how safe you are with me and how incapable I am of baseness." 
Like Juba, the Numidian prince in Addison's " Cato," he 
could say : 

"Better to die a thousand deaths, 
Than wound my honor." 

Above all, he was devoutly and most honestly religious ; 
as the Spanish Marquis D'Hermona, who knew him inti- 
mately, said of him, somewhat extravagantly perhaps, " If the 
Heavenly Being were to descend upon earth, he could not 
inhabit a heart more apparently good than that of Toussaint." 

On the whole, then, observing this remarkable man from 
first to last, or surveying him from head to foot, as Brutus 
said of Caesar, that he was " the foremost man of all this 
world," so we may not hesitate to pronounce TOUSSAINT 
L'OUVERTURE, THE "FOREMOST MAN" OF ALL THE NEGRO 
RACE KNOWN TO HISTORY. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 1 33 



CHAPTER XV. 

Don Francisco Pizarro, Discoverer and Conqueror 
of Peru, and its First Viceroy. 

THE life and adventures, discoveries and exploits, of 
this celebrated Spanish explorer and military com- 
mander, during the era of South America's invasion and 
subjection to European rule, are of remarkable historic and 
even romantic interest. There are scenes disclosed in his 
record, as given by old writers, and by our own Prescott, in 
his exhaustive and admirable " History of the Conquest of 
Peru," so novel to other ages and regions, that they strike 
on the mind almost as fairy tales of the " Arabian Nights." 
As we read chapters describing the civilization, arts, public 
works, and, specially, the gold of the ancient Peruvians, which 
no other nation in the world ever had in such abundance, we 
do not marvel that that part of the New World should have 
excited the cupidity of its Castilian invaders to the utmost, 
and induced them to make such terrible sacrifices to seize on 
this tempting El Dorado, while we deplore the fate, at their 
rapacious hands, of so noble a race and so fair and beautiful 
a kingdom. 

Our limits will not, however, permit much detail of facts 
in the present sketch, and, referring our readers who desire 
more particulars to Mr. Prescott's full pages, and to the 
unique, learned and brilliant volume, by Ignatius Donelly, 
called " Atlantis," that vast sunken island of antiquity, de- 
scribed by Plato, we must content ourselves with presenting 



134 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

a brief resume of Pizarro's career, and his Peruvian dis- 
coveries and acquisitions. 

Francisco Pizarro, the oldest of several brothers who 
followed him to South America and also became famous 
there, was born in the City of Truxillo in the Province of 
Estremadura, Spain, whence he came to Panama, as early as. 
Cortez, but did not rise to reputation as quickly. His first 
expedition sailed from that port in November, 1524, associated 
with Diego de Almagro, another great explorer and soldier. 
They had but one ship and one hundred and nineteen men, 
and this attempt to enter the land of the Incas was entirely 
unsuccessful. Nor more so at first, was his second expedition, 
which was reinforced by another hundred of his countrymen 
and some Indians. 

Having arrived at a marshy, watery place, where the people 
lived in trees, they repulsed the invaders, called them the scum 
of the seas, and would admit none in their country who wore 
beards. The inhabitants made a great show of precious stones- 
and gold. Pizarro's men now became discouraged, but he did 
not lose hope, and would not suffer any to return or even to 
write to Panama, although word got to the governor there of 
this state of things, when he decreed that no man should stay 
with Pizarro against his will. Subsequently, for awhile, he was. 
reduced to great straits for food, etc., with his remaining fol- 
lowers. But fortune soon smiled upon him, and he succeeded 
in obtaining a foothold in a rich country, with a dignified king,, 
named Atahualpa. This empire, called Quichua by its citizens, 
Pizarro named Peru, and soon after returned to Spain, whither 
he had before transmitted a " relation " of his important dis- 
coveries, and on this visit the Emperor Charles V. gave him 
the proud title of Adelantado of Peru. 

Going back now with his three brothers, Fernando, Juan and 
Garsalo, he again was joined at Panama by Almagro — although 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 135 

offended that Pizarro had taken all the honor of discoveries to 
himself when in Spain — and set out on an expedition against 
the unfortunate Atahalipa, as his name is sometimes spelled, 
defeated his army and took him prisoner, capturing also the 
island of Puma. The captured king, however, ransomed him- 
self by an amount of gold that filled a high and spacious room. 
The spoil was then divided among Pizarro's men, and never 
any soldiers in the world were richer than his. He also dealt 
justly with Almagro and gave him what was his due share. 
But, although gold was so plenty, what they needed to buy was. 
of course, dearer, viz.: a shirt cost £10, a quart of wine ^3 
and a house £250. Many soldiers returned, some with 30,000 
and some with 40,000 ducats in plate. But alas for poor Ata- 
halipa ! After having thus stripped him and his subjects, and, 
finally, accused of treachery on evidence by no means decisive, 
he was led to execution, and " thus by the death of a vile 
malefactor, perished the last of the Incas ! " Before his death, 
having been instructed by the missionaries of the Catholic 
Church, as to the nature of the sacred rite, he desired to be 
baptized, and was christened Juan de Atahualpa, on account 
of its being St. John the Baptist's day when it took place. 

It was not without the pretext of extending the faith and 
spiritual blessings of Christendom, that the Spaniards prose- 
cuted their conquests, and, in answer to the Peruvian chief, 
" why they had come to those shores?" Pizarro replied, " that 
he was the vassal of the greatest king of the world, and had 
come to assert his master's lawful supremacy, as, also, to res- 
cue the Peruvians from the worship of the evil spirit, and to 
give them the knowledge of the true and only God, and of 
Jesus Christ, in whom to believe was salvation." " In the 
name of the Prince of Peace," says the eloquent Dr. Robert- 
son, in his " History of the New World," " they ratified a con- 
tract of which plunder and bloodshed were the object." The 



136 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

massacre of thousands of his unarmed and unresisting subjects 
around him, when their king was seized for the last time, forms 
one of the darkest chapters in the annals of time. The inno- 
cent Peruvians, before the sad lessons of experience taught 
them better, had imagined that, as they had never done any 
harm to the Spaniards, none would be done to them. 

As an all-important objective point, Pizarro soon took pos- 
session of Cuzco, the chief city of Peru, where he found immense 
wealth. So plenty was gold, that it was reported that even 
the kitchen utensils in most houses were of that precious 
metal, and the tiles of their roofs. One of their palaces had 
an artificial garden, the soil of which was made of small pieces 
of fine gold, which was artificially planted with different kinds 
of maize, having golden stems, leaves and ears, and placed in 
it twenty sheep, with lambs and shepherds, four llamas, ten 
women of full size, all of gold, and a cistern of gold that 
excited universal wonder. This agrees with Plato's picture of 
ancient mythical Atlantis. The most renowned temple was at 
Cuzco, the interior of which was literally a mine of gold. On 
the walls was emblazoned a representation of the Deity, con- 
sisting of a human countenance looking forth from innumer- 
able rays of light. 

It is related that the old Peruvian name of the Supreme 
Being, the Creator, was Virackocha, or Pachacamac. They 
called jewels the " tears wept from the sun." The value of 
such as adorned the great temple at Cuzco, was computed at 
180 millions of dollars. But the Peruvians did not value gold 
and silver so much as money as for sacred uses. This remark- 
able people had made great advances in the arts, and particu- 
larly in architecture, like the ancient Egyptians, with whom 
they had other points of resemblance, e. g., in the worship of 
the sun, moon and planets, the soul's immortality, resurrection 
of the dead, division of the year, castes as in India, triumphal 
arches for returning heroes, agricultural interests, etc. 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 



37 



But we must now speak of the civilization and architectural 
remains of this wonderful race. Says Baldwin, in his "Ancient 
America," "This whole region, as found by the Spaniards, was 
a prosperous and populous empire, and presented a notable 
development of some of the more important arts of civilized 
life." Pizarro's company found everywhere traces of a civiliza- 
tion of vast antiquity, Cyclopean building stones, and gateways 
of stone thirty feet long, fifteen feet wide and six feet thick. 
In the ancient capital of the Chimus, in North Peru, which 
remains to this day, its ruins covering not less than twenty 
square miles, are found pyramidal structures half a mile in 
circumference, massive walls, each with its water tank, etc. 
Around Lake Titicaca are great buildings of brown stone, 
having doors and windows, with posts, sills and thresholds of 
stone, in modern New York City style. At Cuelap there is a 
wall 3,600 feet long, 560 feet broad, and 150 feet high, on the 
top of which another lofty one pierces the sky. There are, 
also, near Huamango, aqueducts and public roads across 
sierras and rivers, some over suspension bridges, and one road, 
from Cuzco to Chili, hundreds of miles long. Of this, Hum- 
boldt, the celebrated traveler and savant, says : " The road 
was marvelous ; none of the Roman roads I had seen in Italy, 
the south of France, or in Spain, appeared to me more impos- 
ing than this work of the ancient Peruvians." These structures 
are said to have been built before the time of the Incas. So, 
also, their products in cotton and wool are said to have ex- 
ceeded in fineness anything known in Europe at that time. 
As to these accumulations of wealth, it is related that in 
twenty-five years after the conquest, the Spaniards sent eight 
hundred millions of dollars to old Spain. Pizarro himself had 
the chair or throne of the Incas, which was of solid gold. 

But to revert once more to the awful massacre of the unsus- 
pecting thousands by this ferocious conqueror, when their 



I38 THE SPANISH MAIN. 

monarch, Atahualpa, was captured to be spared but for a brief 
space, we would say that this booty was bought at a sacrifice 
of honor and good faith, such as all history can scarcely par- 
allel. And although it is true that the last of the Incas had, 
in securing his own imperial station, committed fearful atro- 
cities, this fact did not justify the perfidy of the Spaniards in 
seizing his person for their prey, and his public execution at 
their hands. But a day of Providential retribution was near, 
in the form of a dire civil war among the invaders themselves, 
in which the slain were many, and Pizarro one of them. He 
had quarreled with and put to death his early friend, Almagro, 
and resisted the authority of Peter de la Gasca, whom the 
emperor of Spain had sent to quell the revolts in Peru, and 
empowered to right the wrongs of that injured people. His 
death was in Quito, and one of violence, when desperately 
resisting those whose mission was his execution, and " Jesu ! " 
was the last utterance of his lips. Yet his faithful biographer, 
the historian of the conquest, Prescott, does not give him the 
credit of the religious sincerity and zeal for propagating the 
faith, of Cortez, his kinsman, the conqueror of Mexico. 

The predominant passion of Pizarro was undoubtedly the 
thirst for gold and dominion at any cost. Yet he was brave 
by nature, and endowed with courage to face unexampled 
difficulties. His march across the Andes was heroic. His 
speech to his soldiers, at that time, is worthy of commemora- 
tion, viz.: " Let every one of you take courage to go forward 
like a good soldier. God fights for his own. Doubt not He 
will humble the power of the heathen, and bring them to the 
knowledge of the true faith, the great object of the conquest." 
His birth is supposed to have been about a. d. 1471 — he came 
to the New World several years before his invasion of Peru — 
and his death occurred not far from the year 1546. The 
people he was the instrument of conquering, were in every 



THIRTY DAYS ON THE CARIBBEAN. 1 39 

respect a grand and powerful race, and without their fire-arms- 
and horses, the Spaniards never could have subdued them. 
Their laws were almost agrarian with respect to landed prop- 
erty, their institutions just, and their faith in a future world of 
discrimination between the good and the bad, was such as the 
ancient Egyptians held to, and which, probably, many who 
" profess and call themselves Christians " do not any more prac- 
tically regard. And, says Mr. Prescott, familiar with all the 
old Spanish records of the Peruvians by learned and pious 
Roman Catholic priests, " They had attained to the sublime 
conception of one Great Spirit, the Creator and Ruler of the 
universe." The frontispiece of his noble work presents an 
engraved likeness of Pizarro, from an original full-length 
painting in the Palace of the Incas, at Lima. 

On a column at Truxillo, Spain, his birth-place, are to be 
found the following lines, by the celebrated English poet 
Southey, which condensed in a small compass the more 
remarkable traits of Pizarro's character, and with them we 
conclude the present imperfect sketch : 

Pizarro here was korn ; a greater name 

The list of glory boasts not. Toil and fain, 

Famine and hostile elements and hosts 

Embattled, failed to check him in his course, 

Not to be wearied, not to be deterred, 

Not to be overcome. A mighty realm 

He overran, and with resistless arm, 

Slew or enslaved its unoffending sons, 

And wealth, and power, and fame, made his rewards. 

There is another world beyond the grave, 

According to their deeds, where men are judged. 

o, reader ! if thy daily bread be earned 

By daily labor — yea, however low — 

However wretched be thy lot assumed, 

Thank thou, with deepest gratitude, the God 

Who made thee, that thou art not such as he. 



APR 14 19C5 



